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 2000
Junior World Championships - Day 2
(Women -57kg, -63kg, Men
-100kg , -90kg)
NABEUL, TUNISIA - 27 OCTOBER , 2000
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out our Day 2 photo gallery »
By: Matt Carter
Nabeul, TUNISIA - October
27, 2000 - Four different countries picked up gold medals on the
second day of competition at the 2000 HYUNDAI Junior World Judo
Championships, bringing the national anthem count to seven as we
hit the half way mark of the tournament. Gold medals went to Cuba
(-57kg), France (-63kg), Georgia (-90kg) and Germany (-100kg). Perennial
favourites Japan, who has picked up more medals than any other nation
with three silvers and three bronzes, has yet to take a gold.
-57kg
(Contest Sheet - PDF)
Coba Lapetey of Cuba dominated the women's -57kg category which
featured 32 judoka. In the final, Lapetey fought Japan's Reiko Yoshinaru,
beating her by a yuko scored on a drop Seoi-nage early on in the
match. Lapetey left the mat looking very composed and sure of herself
and promises to be a force to watch out for in the future. Prior
to her gold medal win, she secured her spot in the semi-finals with
a string of ippon victories starting with Onana Malachowska (POL)
and followed by Iouliet Gorgoli (GRE) and Valeri Degrijse (BEL).
In the semi-final, Lapetey faced Sophie Cox of Great Britain. Cox,
who ended up finishing 5th overall, gave the Cuban her toughest
opposition on the day in a hard fought match that finished had to
go to a decision after 4 minutes. Cox came out quickly and looked
as though she would take the fight to the Cuban, but Lapetey made
some key attacks in the dying seconds to win the judges favour and
justify her win by a unanimous decision. Cox went on to fight Yuhua
Xu of China in the bronze medal match, but was caught with a counter
and thrown for ippon to shatter her medal hopes. She said afterwards
that these championships had been "a great experience" and that
she wanted to thank everybody for their support. In the other bronze
medal match up, Gasimov Kifayat of Azerbaijan went up against Tatia
Chouchakova of Russia. Kifayat, who was in fine form all day, made
short work of the Russian, throwing her within 38 seconds for the
win.
-63kg
(Contest Sheet - PDF)
The -63kg category, which was smaller then the -57kg class with
only 24 competitors, looked like in might produce Japan's first
gold of the tournament in the form of the compact Ayumi Tanimoto.
The cagey Tanimoto bobbed up and down and threw her first opponent
Urska Zolnir of Slovenia with a very Koga-like Sode-tsuri-komi-goshi
before holding her down with Kuzure-yoko-shiho-gatame for the double
waza-ari win. She then beat Jill Sanders (NED) with a powerful Ippon-seoi-nage
to advance to the finals against Lucie Decosse of France. She met
her match against Decosse however, and was thrown decisively by
the taller French player in only 15 seconds. Decosse fought her
way to the final by disposing of Claudia Heill (AUT), Ga Young Park
(KOR) and Yoko Shinomiya (SUI).
The two bronze medals were won with lightning speed as Heill of
Austria fought through the repechage to win a well deserved bronze
against Sanders (NED) scoring ippon in just 42 seconds with a right
handed O-soto-gari. Sanders, whose only loss of the tournament came
at the hands of gold medallist Decosse (FRA), said later that she
was looking forward to getting her own back against Decosse at next
year's Junior Europeans in Cyprus. The other bronze medal went to
Sarr Hernandez (CUB) who beat the Swiss fighter, Shinomiya in mere
seconds with a classic Uchi-mata right off of her first grip.
-90kg
(Contest Sheet - PDF)
The -90kg category was the largest of the day with 35 players and
included some incredible excitement as well as a little controversy.
It started off with Hiroshi Izumi of Japan being disqualified for
continuing a potentially dangerous arm lock against Ivar Berends
of the Netherlands. The match was a close one and the Dutchman was
having some trouble with the much shorter and stockier Japanese,
who kept his centre of gravity low to avoid being thrown despite
numerous Uchi-mata attempts from Berends. But with 36 seconds remaining,
Izumi caught Berends with an O-soto-gari to score a yuko, he then
continued into ground work and tried to put on Juji-gatame. After
continuing to work on the arm once matte was called, Izumi received
hansokumake and was disqualified. Berends went on to win his next
two matches against Mikalia Shkred (BLR) and Xiangcai Zhu of China
before meeting a determined Peter Cousins (GBR) in the semi-finals.
Cousins was having a super day and had beaten both Aljaz Artac (SLO)
and Amel Mekic (GRE), each with a beautifully executed drop Seoi-nage.
In the quarter-finals the exciting British fighter met a tough Korean,
In Ho Kang, and despite outgripping him for most of the match had
to settle for a narrow win thanks to a shido Kang had received earlier
in the fight for passivity.
The final was full of excitement as Cousins prepared to take on
Zurab Zviadauri of Geogia. Zviadauri had earlier scored what many
were calling the "throw of the day" against Kalen Kachur (CAN).
The Canadian, who had already thrown an American and a Venezuelan
for ippon, looked strong coming into his duel with Zviadauri. However,
when Kachur came in for a right-sided Uchi-mata, the Geogian blocked
him with his hips, picked him up and threw him with a huge Utsuri-goshi
for the victory. He then proceeded to beat Daniel Hadfi of Hungary
to set up the big final against Cousins. The final was the first
meeting between the two dynamic players and began with Cousins coming
out cautiously against the Georgian, as both men sized each other
up. But at the 30 second mark Cousins dropped under Zviadauri with
a quick Seoi-nage that just failed to score. He wouldn't be denied
again, and attacked seconds later with another Seoi-nage that scored
him a yuko. The Georgian replied a minute later with a score of
his own that gave him a koka. At this point, Cousins became somewhat
defensive and a shido was given to him. He responded by trying Kata-guruma
in an attempt to shake things up a bit, but without success. Still,
the British fighter looked to be in control and on his way to a
Junior World title, but with 39 seconds to go, Zviadauri scored
a yuko of his own to take the lead with a yuko and two koka scores
to Cousins' single yuko. Then, with only 8 seconds left, Zviadauri
also received a shido for being too defensive, putting the match
within a koka of a decision. Unfortunately for Cousins, time was
not on his side and the day belonged to the Georgian. Arguably,
Cousins' first score could have been called a waza-ari and indeed
one corner judge did indicate that he thought it was worth the higher
score. British coach, Neil Eckersley called the result "devastating,"
but added that Peter Cousins would be back "4 years from now on
the podium in Athens (site of the 2004 Olympic Games)." Peter himself
echoed these sentiments later at a press conference saying confidently,
"You'll hear the anthem in Athens." In the meantime, Peter's next
challenge is the Junior European Championships in Cyprus next year
where he hopes to vindicate his loss to Zurab Zviadauri. Peter's
twin brother Thomas will be in action tomorrow in the -81kg category.
Bronze medals were awarded to Daniel Hadfi (HUN) who defeated Amel
Mekic in ne-waza and Alessand Merly of Brazil who beat Thierry Fabre
(NED) with a foot sweep.
-100kg
(Contest Sheet - PDF)
The crowd was expecting big things from Germany's Pille Thomas in
the light heavyweight final and he delivered, coming out strongly
in his fight against a slightly stoic looking Masanori Hongo of
Japan. After receiving a shido and then a chui for his lack of aggressiveness,
Hongo picked it up a gear only to be countered by Thomas who scored
a yuko on the throw. The Japanese appeared to injure his leg slightly
on the throw, but quickly bounced back showing no ill effects. However,
he could not muster enough reserves to out score the German, who
held on to his lead to claim gold. As the buzzer sounded, Thomas
raised his fists in the air in triumph, giving the defeated Japanese
a slight push to assert his superiority as he stood up. Thomas had
looked impressive all day and showed true fighting spirit with a
dramatic come from behind quarter-final win over Eslam Chahabi (EGY)
by scoring a huge waza-ari with only 4 seconds to spare. Earlier
in the day he had beaten Dasta Primkulov (KAZ) and Sofien Chebbi
of Tunisia. In the semi-finals, Thomas faced Abdull Tangriev (UZB)
and threw him with a super O-goshi to score waza-ari within the
first 20 seconds; he then followed this effort up with a swift Tani-otoshi
to earn a yuko. As the pace slowed in the final two minutes, it
looked as though the German would stay on top, but the tide suddenly
changed as Tangriev threw for a waza-ari of his own with only 25
seconds remaining. Pille gave his all by holding on to his earlier
yuko to carry him through to the final.
Hongo made his way into the final by pulling out wins against Richard
Esparza (USA), Sabastien Godin (CAN), Dionisi Iliadis (GRE) and
Jean Vanbever of France. Hongo, who didn't look particularly dominant
in any of his fights, always seemed to get the big throws in when
he needed them most. He scored ippon with an excellent Harai-goshi
against Godin of Canada and scored with a textbook Tai-otoshi against
Iliadis, who had previously scored a waza-ari with a lovely Hiza-guruma
that the Greek coach insisted should have been ippon. He then narrowly
defeated Vanbever of France in the semi-finals with a yuko score.
In the semi-finals, the Frenchman looked to have the more orthodox
Hongo in trouble with a deep overhand grip, but Hongo managed to
break it off time and again to advance to the final against Thomas.
Vanbever meanwhile, came back to win the bronze against Primkulov
(KAZ), while Jung Moon Kim of Korea fought through the repechage
to win in convincing fashion over Tangriev (UZB) with a classic
Seoi-nage 8 seconds into the final.
MC
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