Outsider Cirjenics surges up the rankings after Grand Slam glory

Cirjenics Miklos won the gold U100kg as Hungary’s top performer in the final Grand Slam in Ekaterinburg before his country hosts the World Championships in August. World number 22 Cirjenics won all four of his contests by ippon with the finest display of his career.

Antalya Grand Prix bronze medallist Niyaz Ilyasov of Russia was countered for a waza-ari score before the flowing Hungarian added two further waza-ari scores. Cirjenics had the Russian locked in a tate-shiho-gatame hold and then adjusted to a juji-gatame to win by submission.

In the first semi-final two-time Grand Slam bronze medallist Jevgenijs Borodavko (LAT) tapped out to Cirjenics in the last 30 seconds.

In the second semi-final Ilyasov caught Olympic silver medallist Varlam Liparteliani (GEO) with an ouchi-gari after an initial uchi-mata attempt and the Georgian failed to counter as he fell down into the bronze medal contest.

The first bronze medal was indeed won by Liparteliani against U100kg newcomer Alexandre Iddir (FRA). The Frenchman moved up in February and came up against one of his old U90kg rivals and the pair could not be separated in four minutes of regulation time. An additional 20 seconds provided a winner as Iddir was penalised with a shido for a false attack.

The second bronze medal went to Zagreb Grand Prix bronze medallist Laurin Boehler (AUT) who secured his first Grand Slam medal in explosive fashion. The Austrian lifted up Borodavko with a gigantic ura-nage for ippon as the crowd roared with approval.