Iranian judoka Javad Mahjoub in the +100kg category entered the final at the Tunis Judo Grand Prix Sunday evening, but the result of the final match was not announced as this newspaper went to print.
In the first judo grand prix of 2018, January 19-21, Mahjoub faced Mustapha Abdallaoui from Morocco in the first match and defeated him with ippon, which is the equivalent of a knockout in judo.
In his next match, the Iranian went on tatami against Maisara Elnagar from Egypt who was also knocked out. The Egyptian was the champion of the 2017 African Senior Championships, according to the website of the games, Ijf.org.
Mahjoub’s third and strongest rival was Tamerlan Bashaev from Russia. He is the champion of U23 European Championships in 2017. Bashaev finished second in the 2017 Saarbruecken Senior European Cup 2017 as well as the U23 European Championships 2016.
The Iranian scored an ippon for a victory against the Russian and entered the semifinal to face Romania’s Vladut Simionescu.
For the fourth time in the games, Mahjoub defeated his rival in a knockout and entered the final game against Oleksandr Gordiienko.
A total of 335 judokas from 46 nations attended the games. Ali Qolipour, Qasem Nourizadeh, Alireza Khojasteh, Mohammad Mohammadi, Saeed Mollaei and Javad Mahjoub were the participants from Iran.
The Iranians, except for Mahjoub, left the tournament empty-handed.
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