Team USA returned home with four gold medals.
In the -60kg division, Christopher Velazco met Joshua Yang in the semifinal. It was Yang who got through to the final but he lost to Jhonathan Benavides (ECU) in the final to earn a silver medal.
In the -66kg division, Lenny Sheynfeld won his first match against the experienced Lenin Perciado (ECU) but lost his second match to Mateo Condor (PER). Jacob Yang lost his first-round match to Joshua Katz (AUS). Adonis Diaz also lost his first-round match to Franco Baltazar (PER).
In the -73kg division, Christian Buckner lost his first-round match to Jannik Matz Wenzel (GER).
In the 81kg division, Dominic Rodriguez brought home the gold defeating John Perez Ruiz (COL) in the final. USA’s other player in that division, Ramon Hernandez Jr fought for bronze but lost to Olivier Gagnon (CAN).
In the -90kg division, Oleksandr Nyzhnyk also brought home the gold, defeating Noah Walliss (NZL) in the final.
In the -100kg division, Jesse Butler lost his first-round match to Daryl Yamamoto (PER). Caedmom Haddad made it to the quarterfinal but lost to Tanou Mamadou Keita (GUI). Pool C of that weight class USA had two players, who fought each other in the semifinal: Jared Casse and Daniel Liubimovski. It was Liubimovski who prevailed and eventually made it to the final, where he defeated Francisco Balanta (COL) to win another gold for USA. Haddad won the bronze medal, defeating Alec Garand (CAN).
In the +100kg division, Alex Semenko defeated Caraballo Cuellar (URU) to win the fourth men’s gold medal for USA.
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.