Ami Kondo and Egor Mgdsyan Have Been Elected the Best Athletes of the World Junior Judo Championship
The young talents wrote judo history for their countries.
According to its tradition, the International Judo Federation has chosen the best athletes of the World Junior Championship held in Fort Lauderdale in 2014. And the titles have been awarded to the extra-lightweight Ami Kondo and to the half-lightweight Egor Mgdsyan, who wrote their names in the judo history of their countries.
There was no surprise regarding the female athletes: the award went to the Japanese Ami Kondo. The 19-year old athlete won all her five fights in the competition (against the Brazilian Silva Tawany, the Hungarian Reka Pupp, the Moldovan Budescu Cristina and the Turkish Dilara Lokmanhekim) by ippon, besides winning the gold in the competition by teams. Kondo joined the world judo history by becoming the second woman to win the world junior title after winning the senior world title. She became world champion in Chelyabinsk this year. Before her, only the Cuban Yanet Bermoy Acosta had won the World Senior Cairo 2005 and the World Junior Santo Domingo 2006.
Regarding the male athletes, the award went to the Russian Egor Mgdsyan, who also had to overcome a Brazilian in order to win the title. Indeed, the victory against Ricardo Santos Junior in the semifinal was the only one in which Mgdsyan did not manage to get an ippon. The victories were against the American William Inserra, the Uzbek Dostonjon Holikulov, the Ukrainian Bogdan Iadov and the Japanese Hifumi in the final. Mgdsyan also put his name in the history of the Russian judo because his gold was the 50th medal of the country in world junior championships. The title was the 19th in the history of Russia.
