Sanshiro Murao didn’t have such an impressive start. Usually a big thrower, he only managed to get a kosoto-gari for yuko before the match ended due to his opponent accumulating three penalties.
His next match is the one everyone wanted to see. It could have been the final. It was Murao against his arch-nemesis Lasha Bekauri (GEO), whom he had already lost to five times in the past. But not this time. Murao whipped Bekauri over with a wrong-leg tai-otoshi that scored ippon. It was a crowd-pleaser.
Murao’s next match, against former World Champion Nemanja Majdov (SRB), was a hard one but he managed to throw Majdov with ouchi-gari for waza-ari seconds before the time was over.
The crowd wanted to see his famous osoto-gari and Murao obliged them in his semifinal match against Maxime-Gael Ngayap-Hambou (FRA). He opened up the accounts with an ouchi-gari for yuko. Then he finished it with a massive osoto-gari.
With his match-up against Bekauri already over, you would think the final would be an anti-climax but there, he faced his teammate (and rival) Goki Tajima, who had beaten him in the All-Japan Championships. This was his chance for revenge, and it’s exactly what he got, countering Tajima twice, first with kosoto-gake for waza-ari, and then with kosoto-gake again but this time for ippon.
Blog posts
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Murao finally beat his arch-rival and also became a double-World Champion.
Kaju continues her winning streak and becomes a double World Champion.