Austria celebrates historic double gold in Oberwart

Despite te victory of Japan at the European Open in Oberwart, the Austrian male athletes can be satisfied about their performance at the Euro Open with two gold medals. It was 2001 when two Austrian took gold for their home country. On Sunday Wachid Borchashvili showed he was capable of snatching the gold U81kg and Marko Bubanja captured the title U90kg. With bronze for Kimran Borchashvili there is a new future for the Austrian men coming up.

The heavyweight class though was for Japan with an all Japanese final between Takuto Kimoto and Sosuke Matsumura where Kimoto captured gold. They are though far from the level needed to qualify for the Olympic Games but almost every year the Austrians come to Oberwart to showcase new material.

The Brazilian boys Leonardo Goncalves and Rafael Buzacarini are world level and are still captured in an intense battle for the Olympic Games. There’s work to be done and the 100 qualification points just contribute to confidence for Dusseldorf. Nonetheless both qualified for the final U100kg and Goncalves won the gold medal.

Marko Bubanja celebrated the victory when he won the final U90kg against Russian Roman Dontsov. So perhaps not a super strong field but still a welcome World Cup. Whether it will be in Oberwart next year is still the question but at least there was fireworks on Sunday with gold for Bubanja and Wachid Borchashvili who defeated Frenchman Baptiste Pierre in the final U81kg.

On Saturday Japan signed for two gold medals U60kg and U66kg, two popular international weight categories for Japan. Hyoga Nosho and Koki Uchimura saw the flags in the top for their performances. Alexandru Raicu of Romania defeated Alexander Gabler of Germany in the final U73kg.