Brazil Gets Two More Medals at the End of the Havana Grand Prix
Tiago Camilo wins the silver of the men’s middleweight category whereas Hugo Pessanha takes the bronze of the half heavyweight.
Brazil got two more medals at the end of the Havana Grand Prix. Tiago Camilo (90kg) is the second best athlete after the world number one of the category, Varlam Liparteliani (GEO) and so he took the silver. Hugo Pessanha (100kg) overcame his defeat from the semifinals and won by ippon the fight for bronze against the Swedish Martin Pacek. Altogether, there were five medals: in the first day of competition Eric Takabatake (60kg) and Erika Miranda (52kg) took the silver and Sarah Menezes (48kg) won the bronze. The Brazilian athletes who competed on Saturday were Marcelo Contini (73kg) and Victor Penalber (81kg) but they did not reach the podium.
But this Sunday was different. Tiago Camilo qualified for the decision, proving he was deserving his nickname, King of ippon: he had three victories with the maximum score. The two-times Olympic medalist - silver in Sydney 2000 and bronze in Beijing 2008 - began his victory path at Havana Grand Prix of in the eighth-finals defeating the Cuban Liester Cardona. In the quarterfinals, he defeated as well the Swiss Ciril Grossklaus whereas in the semifinal he had a victory against Christophe Lambert from Germany. In the decision, however,Tiago could not overcome the Georgian Varlam Liparteliani, the world number one, and so he took silver.
Hugo Pessanha had not been fighting for almost a year because of an injury and resumed to competition in the last year’s second half. In the Havana Grand Prix, a competition with a high technical level, he did his best. In the first fight, he defeated the Serbian Stefan Jurisic by full score (a yuko, a wazari and an ippon) and, after that, the Hungarian Gergo Fogasy by ippon. In the semifinal, he was defeated byToma Nikiforov from Belgium; the latter won the title of the competition. In the contention for the bronze, he had a tough fight against the Swedish Martin Pacek, 12th placed in the world rankings. After each of them getting a wazari, the fight was decided by the Brazilian’s ippon in a reversion to his opponent's blow.
"We did not use our full strength in the competition. We took some athletes who needed to feel the pace and correct any mistakes. For example, Hugo and Tiago are two athletes who have not been competing for a long time and so they need to compete more. Tiago competed well, he made good fights and defeated strong opponents, "analyzed Ney Wilson, the BJC’s Senior Performance Director.
In the half heavyweight, Renan Nunes (100kg) was defeated when there was less than a minute left to the end the fight by the Portuguese Jorge Fonseca and so he could not reach the contention for medals. Walter Santos (+100 kg) began by overcoming the Cuban Yoandry Hernandez but lost in the second fight against the Georgian Levani Matiashvili and could fight again in the repechage. But he could not defeat Adam Okruashvili from Georgia, the world number four, and ended up in the seventh place.
"I think there was a gold missing but everything ran as planned and we will not change our working line. In terms of organization, this event was a historical one for the continent. I enjoyed it and I believe that the International Judo Federation did it too, “Ney Wilson concluded.
