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We had to wait until the appearance of Vusal Galandarzade. The Azeri allowed himself the luxury of unceremoniously eliminating the first seed, the Georgian Giorgi Terashvili. It was ippon, on to the next round and Galandarzade’s victory also served to stir up the hornet’s nest, which is what we wanted. Thus, the Spaniard Salvador Cases Roca made the Brazilian Pedro Medeiros fly, who half an hour later was still in the clouds. The waterfall of hansoku-make became a torrent of ippons. In addition to Terashvili, another of the favourites, the Canadian Arthur Margelidon, disappeared due to injury, leaving a few underdogs in Group D. We saw Cases Roca again, against the Frenchman Otmane, and the Spaniard delighted the crowd with ne-waza magnificence which culminated in ippon from osae-komi. Two fights, two victories in record time, so maybe it was Cases Roca’s day. Galandarzade’s fortune ended in the third round against Kazakh Daniyar Shamshayev, who advanced to the quarter-finals against Uzbek Shakhram Akhadov. The serious thing began: the fight for the medals. Akhadov advanced to the next round by waza-ari and Switzerland’s Nils Stump brutally woke Cases Roca with two waza-ari, two similar sweeps. No-one is safe in this sport, not even the most inspired. Stump was a winning machine throughout the morning, but without fuss, without jumping for joy at each victory; a serious guy, Swiss. Against Akhadov Stump repeated the sweep that in the preliminary phase, the same gesture, made with the precision of a Swiss watch that nobody knew how to counteract and he earned the right to fight for gold.
Giovanni Esposito had been looking for his moment for some time and found it with silver in the European Championship. Now he appears more serene, less impulsive and in Abu Dhabi he reaped the fruits of his work by getting into the semi-finals. His rival was the Uzbek Obdikhon Nomonov. The excellent balance of the team in Tashkent makes the Uzbek school one of the favourites, especially when the intermediate and heavy categories arrive. It is a team with a long-term plan and for the moment it works. It could have been a final between compatriots but both Akhadov and Nomonov stayed on the verge of the final because Stump first and Esposito later, were better. The Italian has also made a leap in quality that he has captured in Abu Dhabi, like the entire Italian team.
Until the final, the most expeditious was Stump, always with the same sweep, as if the opponents had not noticed or simply could not find the formula to stop him. The Italian had a more laborious day, with larger obstacles. In the final, Stump had a clear first chance pinning the Italian but Esposito broke free before Stump could score. The Swiss charged again, always the one leading the charge and the Italian was suffering, ending up sunk when Stump threw him for ippon and gold. From what we had seen so far it was logical and Stump confirmed the initial impression but we expected something more from the Italian.
Cases Roca lost his shine with the passing of the hours. The euphoria of his early bouts gave way to a slower, less shocking pace and he was going to need to get back to his best if he was going to beat Nomonov and clinch the bronze. The Uzbek was true to his style, a mixture of attack and defence. None seemed more powerful but the Spaniard’s weapon was ne-waza and we know that they work a lot on it in Valencia. What began as a struggle on the ground with both taking and losing control, ended with the Spaniard pinning the Uzbek to earn his second grand slam medal.
The second opportunity for Uzbekistan came with Aghakov but for this he had to get past Moldovan Petru Pelivan, who in the morning was only beaten by Italian Esposito. Aghakov was second and he wasted no time as he struck Pelivan down with a tremendous ippon in less than a minute.
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