Draw of the World Open Championships in Marrakech

The World Championships Open Weight will take place in Marrakech in Morocco and among the 40 judoka some smashing first contests. What about a warmup match for Teddy Riner against Krakovetskii of Kyrgistan. If Riner wins he will meet with Guram Tushishvili of Georgia, the matches of all matches in the prerounds. Obviously way too early. If Riner gets past the Georgian, it should be smooth sailing until he is expected to meet with youngster Stephan Hegyi (AUT) or Temuulen Battulga for the top spot in his pool. JudoInside and JudoCrazy analysed the first clashes.

Another top match in their first contest is Cyrille Maret of France vs Ori Sasson of Israel. What a top match.  This match is in Pool C and the winner could be catapulted for the final phase. Alexander Mikhaylin (38) makes his debut and will fight Duurenbayar Ullziibayar, the youngster from Mongolia, an interesting age battle.

In Pool B Takeshi Ojitani may be the strongest on paper. He will be matched to Henk Grol (NED) another former Olympic medallist who makes his comeback. He didn’t fight any match since the Olympic Games. Likely Ojitani will proceed given his reputation. Adam Okruashvili seems to be one of the strongest men to meet Ojitani in the quarter final of Pool B.

As mentioned a juicymatch is Maret (FRA) vs Sasson (ISR) but also Matiashvili (GEO) is also likely to meet Nikiforov (BEL). Nikiforov is a dangerous lightweight but also Matiashvili can throw seriously, but might not be in the best shape. Pool C might be the most challenging pool of the four.

Many people are looking forward to Ilias Iliadis, he is linked to Dutchman Roy Meyer, not an easy match for Ilias and both can throw. For sure it’s a good match with two fine characters. But the real strong guys expected in Pool D are Kokoro Kageura if he survives against the experienced Barna Bor of Hungary. The winner of this clash will meet with Varlam Liparteliani. Don’t wipe him out immediately, but normally too light for this occasion. Cuban Garcia Mendoza is an outsider to reach the quarter finals.

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Watch the draw