Elmar Gasimov claims gold medal in Samsun

In the men’s -100kg category the favourite of the competition was Elmar GASIMOV (AZE) and he confirmed this by entering the final, where he was opposed to the world bronze medallist Karl-Richard FREY (GER), who this time defeated his teammate and Olympic bronze medallist Dimitri PETERS.

FREY was penalised with a shido for a wrong grip and then both athletes were penalised for passivity, giving a small advantage to GASIMOV. But with the Azeri fighter being also penalised for passivity, it was time for golden score. Anything was possible from there. Finally after a last attack from GASIMOV, countered by FREY, but again countered by GASIMOV, the Azeri could score a waza-ari and showed his joy after a very tough fight. 

The first bronze medal fight opposed the winner of the 2013 Moscow Grand Slam, Javad MAHJOUB (IRI), and Dimitri PETERS (GER). But the German, already very experienced at that level gave no chance to his opponent. After having scored a yuko with a counterattack on tani-otoshi, he concluded with an armlock for ippon.

In the second bronze medal fight the Belgian Toma NIKIFOROV (BEL) defeated by PETERS in the quarter final, was opposed to Arsen OMAROV (RUS), who was not among the favourites. NIKIFOROV could be a little disappointed as OMAROV seemed to be beatable, but totally exhausted he could not avoid bring penalised three times before OMAROV scored a yuko with a counterattack. The three penalties received by Russian did not change the final results, the bronze medal going to OMAROV.