Victor Penalber satisfied with video referee snatching the gold from Khubetsov

The final U81kg at the Grand Prix in Tbilisi was announced to be explosive between the 2015 World bronze medallist, Victor Penalber of Brazil and the four-time Grand Slam medallist Alan Khubetsov of Russia. With a superb sode-tsuri-komi-goshi awarded with a ippon the Russian believed that he had won.

The control of Khubetsov was clearly under the belt and therefore he received a shido which cumulated with the two penalties he already had.

But the video was perfectly clear: to conclude his movement, Khubetsov grabbed Penalber’s trousers below the belt. Without that help, the throw would not have been possible and therefore the ippon was converted into a shido. But as the Russian was already penalised two times, this third shido became a hansokumake and victory for Penalber who could step off the mat with a big smile, knowing that he was closer to the silver medal a few seconds earlier.

After one minute in the first bronze medal match Owen Livesey (GBR) and Saeid Mollaei (IRI) were still running after a first score. One minute later, only one shido was put on Livesey for stepping outside of the competition area and a few seconds later a second penalty was awarded to the British. After the four minutes of regular time, the decision would have to be made in the golden score. When Owen Livesey engaged a kata-guruma technique, Mollaei simply blocked him and concluded with an arm action awarded with a waza-ari.

The second bronze medal match saw Aziz Kalkamanuly (KAZ) and Denis Kalinin (RUS) stepping on the mat for a medal. Both athletes seemed to be able to neutralise themselves until Kalkamanuly dropped on his knees for a very low morote-seoi-nage. Kalinin blocked the attack for one or two seconds, before the Kazakh literally jumped back up to turn Kalinin for a beautiful ippon.