Flying Dutchman Noel van 't End back at the Podium at Judo Grand Prix

Dutchman Noel Van ‘t End had the measure of the dangerous Dusseldorf Grand Prix winner Marcus Nyman from Sweden as he continued his country’s golden streak at the Grand Prix of Tbilisi. Van ‘t End scored a yuko and a waza-ari before Nyman offered a purposeful attack but when he did the Dutchman was moving through the air from a sasae-tsurikomi-ashi but avoided giving away a score. The Abu Dhabi Grand Slam silver medallist has a cool demeanour and kept active and alert as he maintained his advantage to take gold.

Van ‘t End was satisfied about today’s practice: “I feel very happy, although I wasn’t at my best level the last weeks, so to shine here feels good. I knew what Nyman would do, I saw him in Düsseldorf, so I knew how to stop him and I had a good tactical plan for him. After this I will go to the Europeans, and then we will see, probably the Masters and obviously the Olympics is the big event.”

In the first semi-final former Paris Grand Slam bronze medallist Celio Dias (POR) was beaten by the inspired Nyman as he could not escape a hold down inside 20 seconds. In the second semi-final Van ‘t End emphatically defeated Nikoloz Sherazadishvili (ESP) as he scored three times without a reply. The Flying Dutchman led by a waza-ari before adding a yuko and then finally ippon after two minutes in a sharp display.

The first bronze medal was awarded to world number 22 Dias who fought his way past Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix bronze medallist Joakim Dvarby, also from Sweden. World number 20 Dvarby had won both their previous meetings but Dias pulled one back in their head-to-head series as he scored a waza-ari with an ippon-seoi-nage after one minute and moved into the osaekomi but the Swede escaped from the kuzure-kesa-gatame hold. With two minutes left Dias struck again with a drop morote-seoi-nage for his second waza-ari.

The second bronze medal went to 20-year-old Junior world silver medallist Sherazadishvili who was a strong performer all day long and got his just rewards in front of a crowd who more than appreciated his Georgian roots. Sherazadishvili won the first Grand Prix medal of his burgeoning career against Magomed Magomedov (RUS) and started by taking the lead with a yuko as he collapsed a drop-seoi-nage attempt to drive over the Russian for the smallest score. Magomedov was twice penalised for a cross-grip as he was unwilling to attack and then got caught for a waza-ari by the Spaniard who held down his opponent for 15 seconds and a fine bronze medal.