Two American players, Gusmary Garcia Savigne and Alex Semenenko made it to the bronze medal stage although both lost their bronze medal matches by hansoku-make after receiving three shidos.
Men's -90kg
In Pool A, Oleksandr Nyzhnyk lost his first-round match to Vojin Mandic, who threw him with the Khabarelli technique twice. The first time for waza-ari, and the second time for ippon. In Pool C, Alexander Knauf had a bye in the first-round and lost to the very experienced Christian Parlati (ITA) in the second round by ogoshi for ippon.
Women’s -78kg
The USA had no player in this category.
Men’s -100kg
In Pool A, Daniel Liubimovski got a bye in the first round and lost to Leonardo Goncalves (BRA), who threw him with an ouchi-gari into ashi-guruma combination for yuko in Golden Score. In Pool D, Jared Causse had a bye in the first round as well and lost to uchimata specialist Kyle Reyes (CAN), who threw him for ippon with his favorite technique in just 13 seconds.
Women’s +78kg
In Pool C, Anna Atkinson had a bye in the first round, and then lost to Helena Vukovic (CRO) in the second round, who threw her with a foot sweep for waza-ari and then applied an armlock for ippon. In Pool D, Gusmary Garcia Savigne had a bye in the first round as well, and then lost to Yuli Alma Mishiner (ISR) by hansoku-make after receiving three shidos. As both players made it to the quarterfinal, they were thrown into the repechage where they faced each other. Garcia was the one who prevailed, throwing Atkinson with soto-makikomi for waza-ari and then pinning her with ura-gatame for waza-ari-awasete-ippon. Garcia lost her bronze medal match to Giovanna Santos (BRA). Garcia once again lost by hansoku-make after receiving three shidos, all for non-combativity.
Men’s +100kg
Alex Semenenko defeated Yevheniy Balyevskyy (UKR) in the first round, countering him for yuko in Golden Score. Next, he defeated Karl Priilinn Turk (EST) in the quarterfinal, throwing him with osoto-gari for yuko and then uchimata for ippon. He lost the semifinal to the eventual gold medalist, Ushangi Kokauri (AZE), who countered Semenko’s uchimata with a slick kosoto-gari for ippon. He lost the bronze medal match to Rafael Buzacarini (BRA) by hansoku-make after receiving his third shido in Golden Score.
Blog posts
Distria Krasniqi (KOS) was the queen of the -52's in Zagreb. She won all her matches by ippon, There was no one even close to her.
Team USA got a total of 3 golds, 9 silvers and 5 bronzes. The three gold medalists were Christoper Velazco at -60kg, Daniel Liubimovski at -100kg and Mariah Holguin at -57kg.
An overview of the winners from Day 3 of the Zagreb Grand Prix, including the performance of American players.