Cuban judoka Ivan Felipe Silva (90 kilograms) and Andy Granda (over 100) will fight today for the bronze medal in the final day of the Tel Aviv Grand Slam, the best for Latin America.
Havana, February 19 (RHC)-- Cuban judoka Ivan Felipe Silva (90 kilograms) and Andy Granda (over 100) will fight today for the bronze medal in the final day of the Tel Aviv Grand Slam, the best for Latin America.
In the Drive in Arena hall of the Israeli capital, Silva, runner-up in Baku-2018, started his performance with a victory by ippon against French Maxime-Gael Ngayap Hambou and in the decisive fight of group D defeated Turkish Mihael Zgank by the same way, when there were few seconds left for the extra time for golden point.
After starting behind in the scoreboard by waza-ari, the Antillean equalized the actions and got the ippon right with the gong, to avenge the setback suffered against Zgank on Sunday, February 6 at the Grand Slam of Paris.
The 90-kilogram semifinal bout between the Cuban and Serbian Nemanja Majdov, world champion of Budapest-2017, was very even and was defined by golden point with an effective counterattack of the Balkan, who will discuss the title with Azerbaijani Mammadali Mehdiyev.
Silva will go up to the tatami for one of the bronze medals against Jesper Smink from the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Granda started his presentation at the Tel Aviv Grand Slam with a spectacular ippon against Kazakhstan's Adil Orazbayev with the sound of the gong, after going under for a waza-ari.
In the duel for pool A, the super heavyweight from the island gave up by three warnings (shido) on the golden point against a well-known rival, the Brazilian veteran Rafael Silva, Olympic and world multi-medalist, who will clash for the crown with the Georgian Guran Tushishvili.
Granda recovered from the close fight and beat Ukrainian Yakiv Khammo in the repechage, also by three shido in overtime.
Among the women, the best for Latin America was Beatriz Souza, from Brazil over 78 kilograms, finalist against the French favorite Romane Dicko, double Olympic medalist in Tokyo-2020, after winning the mixed teams and finishing third in the division.
Another Brazilian, Camila Yamakawa, also from Brazil, lost in the repechage against Mongolia's Adiyasuren Amarsaikhan.
The other Latin American in the top women's category was the young Cuban Thalia Nariño, defeated in her debut by Kazakhstan's Kamila Berlikash.
