Sanshiro Murao is still an asset for Japan at the worlds

The final U90kg of the Grand Slam in Budapest was between Christian Parlati and Sanshiro Murao. Murao continued his triumphant series playing his great melody, winning gold by eliminating Parlati in a final that we expected much more from. It was the sixth title for Japan in Hungary.

Cuban Iván Felipe Silva Morales was one of the most serious candidates. His first two fights were a formality, but in the semi-finals he crossed paths with Sanshiro Murao (21), the winner of the grand slam in Paris. He seems lighter than his opponents, but has devilish speed, is always on the move and has the refined technique of the Japanese school. Murao had two delicate moments, one with Frenchman Maxime-Gael Ngayap Hambou and another later, in the semi-finals. Murao got rid of Silva Morales and faced his second big obstacle of the day, the Georgian Beka Gviniashvili. If the Japanese is light as a wasp, Gviniashvili is a bull, robust, solid, always looking for contact and ippon. It was an opposition of styles worthy of admiration for the waste of energy and the number of attacks deployed by one and the other: Murao won.

Former Italian Junior World Champion Christian Parlati had two easy opening rounds in his new category U90kg, if that adjective can be applied to judo. In the quarter-finals the Italian met Serbian Nemanja Majdov, who is one of those judoka with thorns, poisonous, with various tricks in his suitcase. Parlati won, and was pleasantly surprised to avoid first-seeded Azeri Mammadali Mehdiyev, eliminated by the unexpected Hungarian Gergely Nerpel. He reached the quarter-finals without an ounce of energy. Parlati won his ticket to the semi-finals, where he faced Rafael Macedo. The Brazilian also passed his test for the day with flying colours, first defeating German and Olympic runner-up Eduard Trippel, fighting for bronze afterwards.

Japan’s Sanshiro Murao is growing from strength to strength, with his second Grand Slam win of the year (and third overall, in his career).

Murao’s favorite technique is osoto-gari but in his first match, against Remi Feuillet (MRI), he used uchimata for ippon.

He had a bit of a harrowing time with France’s Maxime-Gael Ngayap Hambou who threw him in the opening seconds with sumi-gaeshi for waza-ari. Murao returned fire with uchimata for waza-ari, to even up the scores. The match then went into Golden Score where Murao throwing the Frenchman with a tai-otoshi.

Georgia’s powerhouse Beka Gviniashvili also gave Murao a hard time, forcing him to incur two shidos, and taking the match into Golden Score. The Georgian had just attacked with uchimata when Murao replied with a fantastic tani-otoshi, which scored waza-ari, to end the match.

Perhaps inspired by the success of his tani-otoshi against Gvniashvili, Murao tried the same technique in his final against Christian Parlati of Italy. Waza-ari was initially given but it was cancelled by the video judges. The match was in Golden Score when Parlati attempted to do his trademark drop ouchi-gari. His attacking leg missed and the referee gave him his third shido of the match. And with that, Murao won his third IJF gold medal.

Gviniashvili was unhappy with his semi-final loss and crushed Nerpel in the bronze  medal match with ashi-waza for waza-ari right off the bat and a brutal pick-up seconds later. Yes, the Georgian was not happy; maybe he is now.

Silva Morales and Macedo shared the second fight for third. What at first seemed like it would be a lot of obrigado ended in many thanks and the medal returned to Havana with a beautiful sumi-gaeshi by Silva Morales.