Surprising final between Reyes and new world champion Muzaffarbek Turoboyev

Not many would have guessed a semi-final between Kotsoiev and Reyes at the sixth day of the World Championships in Tashkent. They offered a great show that concluded with an osae-komi from Reyes that propelled him to the final battle. It delivered an even more unexpected final between Reyes and Turoboyev, but the home crowd went nuts. Their coaches Antoine Valois-Fortier and Ilias Iliadis, knew that their boys were in monstrous shape.

Reyes’ plan was to exhaust the Uzbek and the Uzbek's plan was to score ippon before his forces left him. It's the beauty of judo, seeing who of the two imposes his strategy. Turoboyev fooled Reyes with a sudden move, as if he wasn't so tired and scored waza-ari. It was over, Reyes should have won because he was better but he didn't finish and the Uzbek took the world title for his country.

Dutchman Michael Korrel qualified for the semi final which was not a huge surprise. He eliminated the Brazilian Buzacarini and the Belgian Nikiforov easily and stepped into the semi-final against Turoboyev. Turoboyev is technically skilled but not super physical. The Uzbek gave Korrel no chance and reached the final of which we know the outcome.

Bronze for Korrel

Korrel was looking for a second bronze medal for the Netherlands and Sulamanidze a fourth medal for Georgia. The more intelligent was Korrel because he was clearly being dominated, but Sulamanidze made the same mistake as in the quarter-finals, letting the Dutchman score and letting time tick away. It was more of a poor performance from the Georgian than a brilliant fight from the Dutchman, but that's also how you can win.

Bronze for Kotsoiev

Nikiforov vs. Kotsoiev was like walking into a dark room without knowing where the exit door is and with no way to find the light switch. They had met five times, with three wins for the Azerbaijani and two for the Belgian, but Kotsoiev’s level in Tashkent was even better, so we didn't know which way the wind would blow. Nikiforov tried but it was the Azeri who responded earning a waza-ari. As the seconds passed, we understood that Kotsoiev had the measure of the Belgian, knowing his weak points, what he likes and what he doesn't like. In any case, it was a perfect example of how to prepare a fight with the coaches. It was a second bronze for Azerbaijan and great frustration for Nikiforov.

Prelims

In the preliminaries there were some big surprises such as Iida Kentaro, and his executioner was called Bojan Dosen, from the Serbian school. Canadian Elnahas had an appointment with the Spaniard Sherazadishvili, whose best friend, the Georgian Liparteliani, had to fight with the Uzbek Turoboyev, who arrived at the stadium highly motivated after Bobonov's gold the day before. The Dutchman Korrel met the Brazilian Buzacarini and for the Belgian Nikiforov fate gave him four minutes of fighting with the young Hungarian who has been pushing hard, Zsombor Veg. Israelian Paltchik fell against the Mongolian Batkhuyag, closing a negative cycle full of defeats ahead of time.

Jorge Fonseca was the first seed, double world champion, who got rid of Dosen in two minutes with a house brand ippon. It was his way of telling the rest that Tashkent must count on him. However, Fonseca got down on one knee in front of the magnificent Azerbaijani Zelym Kotsoiev, the former Junior World Champion who had been under the radar for a while, no doubt preparing his regicide. Another revelation was Canadian Kyle Reyes, 29 years old and in 31st place in the ranking. Reyes, with a waza-ari against him, destroyed the Georgian hopes, who had two representatives and both went to the showers early. The first was Ilia Sulamanidze, who was devastated by Hurricane Reyes. The second was the legendary Varlam Liparteliani, who was literally crushed by the impetuous Muzaffarbek Turoboyev, 22 years old and 27th in the rankings, who advanced by ippon to the delight of the spectators.

Uzbekistan captured the 15th World Championships medal in the history, more importantly, the fifth world title. Two by Sobirov, one by Tangriev and this tournament by Bobonov and Turoboyev.