In the battle for third place, he defeated former world champion Saed Mollaei from Iran and drew 2-2 head-to-head with him. Mollaei won the Olympic Games in Tokyo and the 2021 World Championships in Budapest, and Borchashvili won the Masters 2021 in Doha.
“He was incredibly strong in the medal fight. You can only congratulate him on this performance. It’s nice that he confirmed his performance in Tokyo this year,” said ÖJV head coach Yvonne Bönisch.
The number 7 seeded Borchashvili, who is currently ninth in the ranking, had previously lost in the quarterfinals against the Belgian title holder Matthias Casse (2) in a balanced fight after 8:32 minutes in the golden score after the third warning by Ippon. In the repechage round, the ÖJV athlete prevailed against the Hungarian EM third Attila Ungvari.
“Shamil was physically and tactically at his best. The fight against the world champion was absolutely equal,” said Bönisch. For the Upper Austrian, the performance also meant important points for the Olympic qualification.
Source: Nachrichten
