Preview +100kg Tashkent: The goldhunters are non-seeded

Even without the participation of eyecatcher Teddy Riner in the heavyweight division, the competition is seriously heavy. Current Olympic Champion Lukas Krpalek is not even seeded among the best eight, nor some other medal candidates such as Japanese champion Tatsuru Saito. Both will be eager to go for the gold medal on the last day of the individual Championship at the worlds in Tashkent.

2018 World Champion Guram Tushishvili (GEO) would want to have another world title. Another explosive judoka, Johannes Frey is in his pool. Not so far away Andy Granda and Richard Sipocz, one of the two will make it. Rafael Silva is unstoppable, he is 35 and likely quarter finalist. Mongolia Odkhuu is an outsider for a medal and in a pool with Roy Meyer who won bronze in 2019. His compatriot Jur Spijkers reached the world number one position for a while and will be facing Japanese champion Saito, that will be an outstanding contest in one of the early rounds at day 7 where 36 big man with fight. Yakiv Khammo  has a few challenges but has the reputation to win his pool, but for a place in the final two big man are waiting: Temur Rakhimov (TJK) and Lukas Krpalek, the Olympic champion, what can we expect from him? Again he will face Puumalainen who beat him in Zagreb, Krpalek will not allow that twice. Rakhimov might face Riner’s replacement Joseph Terhec.

Olympic Champion Krpalek didn’t compete much since his second title in Tokyo. In 2016 he won the Olympic title U100kg in Rio and received eternity in judo with this second amazing medal. The performances of Krpalek haven’t been outstanding since but we know that once the heat is on, the Czech will be one of the athletes who is hard to beat. He lost to Zaalishvili and Puumalainen in Zagreb this year, but won’t be surprised for a second time. However when he might face Saito, we all know this is the real deal. And they could, as both are not protected in anyway given the numbers 1-8 of the seeding list won’t be fighting each other until the quarter final. Theoretically they could be in the same pool in the preliminaries. Roy Meyer, Richard Sipocz, Kim Min-Jong, Riner’s replacement Joseph Terhec, Johannes Frey are all unseeded, and some of those are real big throwers!

So who are the ones in the world top 8, you may be surprised. Temur Rakhimov is the world number one in this moment and may face Iakiv Khammo in the quarter final of both survive, which is the question. Saito defeated Rakhimov of in the final of the Grand Slam in Baku last year. Guram Tushishvili is the 2018 World Champion who can give a huge amount of energy when he needs to. Gutsy judo and dangerous judo, including for himself, but always spectacular to watch and we count him among the medal favourites. He might be opposed to Andy Granda, Cuba’s ace in the heavyweights, although rookie and junior world number two Omar Leon Cruz is the second Cuban in the line-up. Odhkuu Tsetsentsengel is a dangerous outsider of Mongolia and number three on the list for whatever it’s worth. Ushangi Kokauri (AZE) is a former Georgian now fighting successfully for Azerbaijan, but not yet convincing enough to count among the top 3, unless he has a great day.

The man who made a quick rise in the IJF World Ranking is Dutchman Jur Spijkers, he was convincing so far with attractive judo and threw some of the greats of the last few months. He might face ‘baby’ Rafael Silva, perhaps the biggest opponents you can have. The Brazilian won countless medals at the major tournaments and still stands despite his respectable age of 35. He is always an asset for the Brazilian team.

Nevertheless, the biggest gold hunters will be non seeded. Count on those guys in any way. Let’s hope we will see spectacular power judo, with the accent on JUDO.