A Big Finish To The Qazaqstan Barysy Grand Slam in Astana!

Astana, Kazakhstan, hosted the final day of the Qazaqstan Barysy Grand Slam. The Barys Arena once again was filled with the passion and joy of hundreds of judo fans.

At -100kg Matvey Kanikovskiy finished a determined performance with a brilliant score in the final, to take his third gold in a row on the World Tour.

He was awarded his medal by Askhat Oralov, Minister of Culture and Sport of Kazakhstan

Mosakhlishvili capitalises

At -90kg Tristani Mosakhlishvili capitalised on a failed attack by his French opponent, holding him down for the gold medal. He was absolutely elated.

Vlad Marinescu, Director General of the IJF, was on hand to award the medals.

“I want to thank all the public here, it was a great moment to see that everybody was cheering for me, and they all got up and cheered for me when I won and I was so happy,” said Mosakhlishvili.

Japan’s Izumi Mao managed to turn the tables on one of the most consistent athletes at -78kg, Patricia Sampaio of Portugal, giving Japan a gold medal after a great display of sportsmanship.

She was awarded her medals by Antonio Castro, IJF Ambassador & Chairman of the IJF Medical Commission.

“The crowd were cheering for my opponent when she was attacking, but then the crowd went wild the moment I applied the hold down, and this cheering made me happy,” said Izumi afterwards.

A powerful o-uchi-gari from Xu

At +78kg, China’s Xu Shiyan executed a powerful o-uchi-gari technique to take the title. She celebrated with the Kazakh crowd.

The medals were awarded by Sarsen Kuranbek, Vice Minister of Culture and Sport of Kazakhstan.

At +100kg Tamerlan Bashaev repeated his performance from two weeks ago, defeating Temur Rakhimov to take the final Gold medal in Astana for this year.

The medals were awarded by Saken Mussaibekov, Vice President of the Kazakhstan Judo Federation.

Local successes

Fielding a strong and consistent team of Judoka across the three days here, the local team had a number of successes during this Grand Slam, including crowning their very own Grand Slam Champion, and multiple other medals for Kazakh judoka, both in the men’s and women’s team. The final day saw some of their best action, and a last chance for the passionate Judo fans here in Astana to cheer for their heroes and for their heroes to cheer them!

At -100kg Islam Bozbayev put on a show with a series of great techniques on his way to the bronze medal contest. There he met his teammate and gave the crowd a Kazakh v Kazakh fight with a thrilling uchi-mata finish.

An elated crowd for a fantastic event in Kazakhstan. A great ending to an incredible competition.