Yuma Oshima wins first IJF event

Japanese judoka continue their road to success. The World Championships has been catalytic for more success in the future. Today was the near future in Tashkent where the first Grand Prix took place since the successful World Championships. In the category U60kg and men’s U66kg both Japanese fighters won their category.

Uzbekistan star Sharafuddin Lutfillaev  found his path to home glory blocked by Tokyo Grand Slam bronze medallist Oshima Yuma (JPN). Lutfillaev  had the crowd with him but Oshima was unfazed and executed a beautiful turnover to trap the Uzbek fighter in osaekomi for ippon. 

In the first semi-final Budapest Grand Prix bronze medallist and top seed Sharafuddin Lutfillaev  (UZB) downed Otar Bestaev (KGZ) with an uchi-mata earning a waza-ari with just six seconds left which brought the crowd to their feet. In the second semi-final Oshima was too strong for Bekir Ozlu (TUR) who was subdued in osaekomi as he elected to tap out due to the pressure applied by the young Japanese fighter.

The first bronze medal was claimed by 2014 Tashkent Grand Prix runner-up Diyorbek Urozboev (UZB) as beaten semi-finalist Ozlu could not compete due to injury and had to settle for a respectable fifth-place finish. The second bronze medal went to Asian Championships bronze medallist Bestaev (KGZ) who won his first medal at this level against 20-year-old IJF World Judo Tour debutant An Jae Yong (PRK). The latter was penalised for going out of the area in the scoreless contest and that proved to be the decisive moment.