Preview Men+100kg Judo World Championships Budapest

Teddy Riner is the 10 time World Champion but he isn’t in Budapest for the same reason as he wasn’t in Tokyo and Baku in 2019 and 2018. 2018 World Champion Guram Tushishvili won’t be there either as well as current World Champion and U100kg Olympic Champion Lukas Krpalek. So we have to deal with the ones present.

Japan sends his strong man Kokoro Kageura (JPN). We know he beat Riner, but he is not in Budapest. Harasawa isn’t either, so this is a good chance for Kageura to take that precious heavyweight title that is lacking in Japan in this whole century. Shinohara was the last heavyweight to win the plus title in 1999. Whether it will be a Japanese World Champion, we don’t know as the opposition is still quite heavy…. Latterly. What to say about big guys like Or Sasson, Olympic medallist and number eight seeded in Budapest. David Moura is another Goliath in the field. Hugely experienced and his rival Rafael Silva is the number two of the seeing list. Those Brazilian guys always take a medal, and we expect them to do the same in Budapest. Gold? Well we expect number one seed Tamerlan Bashaev (RUS) to continue his gold rush.

Although Bashaev might seemed to have lost the Olympic spot to Inal Tasoev, Bashaev shows each time he is a great alternative and a worthy potential World Champion. The somewhat smaller judoka is a real thrower, his shoulder throws are feared. A complete other judoka as most of the bunch, but we see a development anyway since Tushishvili, a more athlete judo hero, won the world title in 2018. He will remember those heroic fights against Roy Meyer who won World bronze in 2019 in Tokyo. Meyer will aim for the Worlds as he is not taken to Japan, as Henk Grol is the one who got selected after a huge clash in Lisbon between the two rivals. It was an asskick for judo and not so nice to see from a judo perspective, but from a fan perspective it was an explosion of energy at the Euros. We know the outcome, Grol won, rather easily and Meyer will focus on the Worlds. Mind you… The Dutch have another guy who can throw, Jur Spijkers might surprise a few rounds at his Worlds debut.

Gela Zaalishvili of Georgia is the number four of the seeding list. He is in shape Georgian and the super talent won the 2018 Junior world title in Nassau. He took gold at the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv in 2021 and made a fast step up to senior level. He bagged Grand Slam gold in Tbilisi in 2021 as well and must be taken seriously as a World Championships candidate for gold. The sympathetic Iakiv Khammo of the Ukraine is the number seven of the seeding list. Maybe not in the best shape of his life, but still he took bronze at the World Masters, which is a good sign, he recently won a local event to practice. He took World bronze in 2015, seems a long time ago. Khammo is now mature and should be aiming for the top 8 as minimum performance.

Stephan Hegyi of Austria is a big man, and he might be able to reach the top 8. What to say about Hungarian Richard Sipocz. He had a great match against Teddy Riner this year and showed his skills in Dusseldorf. This former European u23 Champion keeps surprise… which isn’t a surprise anymore, at home he must be seen as a top rival for a stunt. He is not seeded, same for Korea’s big man Kim Sung-Min who can take a medal as well. Javad Mahjoub (former Iran is fighting for a refugee team. Cuban Andy Granda is an outsider for a medal, but there are so many. Yerassyl Kazhibayev (KAZ), Iurii Krakovetskii (KGZ), Duurenbayar Ulziibayar (MGL) and Vladut Simeonescu (ROU). It will be a huge battle in Budapest despite the absence of some of the top athletes. The last day of the individual championships will be fingerlicking nice.

Watch the video preview of the +100kg category