Koreans on a roll in Portugal with four titles

The last final of the Grand Prix in Portugal opposed Korean Minjong Kim and Georgia’s Saba Inaneishvili. After the first phase of the final, which looked more or less like an observation from both sides of the forces present, it was Kim who scored with a kata-guruma that surprised Inaneishvili: waza-ari. It was enough to win the last gold medal of the weekend.

In the first bronze medal contest, we saw the two Brazilian judoka compete for one place on the podium, the victory being awarded to Silva after Cesarino picked up his third penalty.

The male Kim won each of his 4 preliminary fights with a different technique: yoko-tomoe-nage, seoi-nage, yoko-otoshi and finally, a huge hugging ko-soto-gake against Spijkers (NED) to book his place in the final. Players with such a vast technical repertoire remain uncommon at +100kg, thus Minjong Kim was a standout on the day. He closed out today’s proceedings with a kata-guruma on Inaneishvili (GEO) and cemented Korea’s place at the top of the medal table.

The second bronze medal contest saw Tsetsentsengel Odkhuu (MGL) and Jur Spijkers (NED) competing for the remaining spot on the podium. Tsetsentsengel scored with a beautiful piece of ashi-waza for ippon to conclude his competition day with a bronze medal.

The number one seed of the tournament, Jur Spijkers (NED), held his rank by qualifying quietly for the semi-finals. Among the other favourites, at the other end of the draw, Rafael Silva (BRA), world and Olympic medallist, also let himself be seen. Aged 35, the Brazilian colossus, who has already climbed all the podia on this planet, obviously still wants to perform at the highest level and that alone is remarkable.

Minjong Kim (KOR) was not one of the favourites of the day but he could have been. The double world medallist is indeed far from unknown and it was therefore not surprising to find him at such a level. In the semi-final he was opposed by Spijkers, who he actually defeated, while Silva faced Saba Inaneishvili (GEO), for a victory that went to the Georgian competitor.