Gaming

Judo: Toma Nikiforov wins gold in Tashkent!

Toma Nikiforov holds her first Grand Slam gold medal! After three times the bronze and twice the silver, the Brussels resident is, in fact, mounted on the top step of the podium this Sunday, in Tashkent. In the final, Toma beat the Bulgarian Georgiev (24 years old / n ° 77) at the end of a fight where the two judokas went blow for blow with two calls to the trainer for the Bulgarian.

Toma first scored on a move where he turned his opponent on himself. Then, after a sequence on the ground where Georgiev tried to immobilize, then an arm lock, the Belgian again threw his opponent on his back. Before falling on his knees on the tatami to celebrate this very important success for him on the road to the Tokyo Games!

Opposed to the young Uzbek (20 years old) Turoboyev, who came from -90 kg with a head more than him (!), Toma had qualified for this final not without being led by waza-ari. But the Brussels resident then strangled his opponent with a solid movement on the ground. Lying on the tatami, seized with convulsions, the Uzbek proved incapable of resuming the fight against our compatriot.

Previously, Toma had dismissed the Serbian Dosen (28 years / n ° 30) on a beautiful movement which earned him a waza-ari, then the victory. But it was nothing compared to the one he inflicted on the German Kurbjeweit (26), also mounted from -90 to -100 kg and literally balanced after less than two minutes of combat.

And yet, the turning point of the start of the day was undoubtedly in the quarter-final, where the Brussels resident was opposed to the Mongol Batkhuyag (21 years old / n ° 226!). Despite a first penalty for passivity, it evolved without complex and even scored waza-ari on a counter! In the process, the referee nevertheless imposed a second sanction on him for taking an illicit kimono.

The tension was at its height, to the point that Damiano Martinuzzi, the coach of Toma, was sent back to the stand while he was simply advising his judoka. But, barely fifteen seconds later, when Toma Nikiforov launched a new attack, without success, the referee penalized the Mongol a third time, again for passivity, thus offering the victory to our compatriot. Relief…

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