Luciano Correa Is Gold Awarded and Brazil Wins Three Medals on the Last Day of the Grand Prix from Dusseldorf

In the same category as Luciano’s, the half heavyweight Rafael Buzacarini is in third place. Leader of the world rankings, Rafael Silva (+100 kg) also takes the bronze. Altogether, there were five awards conquered by Brazil in this championship.

It was easier than imagined. Luciano Correa ( 100kg ) had just to step on the mat in order to win the gold at the Grand Prix from Dusseldorf, since his opponent, the Kazakh Maxim Rakov got injured and, consequently, he did not show up for the fight. Rakov got injured in the semifinal against the German Karl - Richard Frey whom he defeated in the end. It was Brazil’s fifth medal in the tournament, counting this Sunday’s two bronze awards won by Rafael Buzacarini (100kg) and Rafael Silva (+100 kg). On Friday, the tournament’s first day, Erika Miranda (52kg) and Ketleyn Quadros (57kg) got the third position.

\"Just as it happened in Austria, my achievement was due to perseverance. Thank God for everything good that has been happening, \"said Luciano Correa who scored at once 300 points for the world ranking.

This was Luciano Correa’s second consecutive gold from this year. Last weekend, the 2007 world champion took the first place on the top in the European Open from Oberwart. In Germany, the campaign was impeccable. He reached the final defeating John Jayne from the United States and Dino Pfeiffer from Germany. In the semifinal, he defeated Tuvshinbayar Naidan from Mongolia, Rafael Buzacarini’s tormentor in the quarter -finals.

Buzacarini, who had earlier defeated the Russian David Bitiev, defeated as well Dino Pfeiffer in the repechage first fight and sought the bronze in the contention against another German athlete, Karl-Richard Frey, with an arm bar in the fight’s last seconds.

Rafael Silva overcame the Russian Stepan Sarkisyan in the competition’s first fight. In the quarter -finals, he was defeated by the Japanese Daiki Kamikawa and went to repechage for the bronze. In the first fight, he defeated Iurii Krakovetskii from Kyrgyzstan and the decision for the bronze award the Japanese Hisayoshi Harasawa as well. This was “Baby’s”first competition of this year.

\"I did not fight in the Grand Prix last year, so I\'m glad to add a few more points for the ranking. But this competition showed me that I still have some things to work on. Now I have to focus on training, “said \"Baby” who scored more than 120 ranking points, thanks to his medal.

The other three Brazilians who competed this Sunday did not reach the final block. Eduardo Bettoni (90kg) had ​​a balanced fight against Erkin Doniyodorov from Uzbekistan, but in less than ten seconds until the end of the fight, he suffered ippon.

Among women, the young Samantha Soares (78kg) lost in her first fight for the French Madeleine Malonga by wazari. And Rochele Nunes (+78 kg) won over the Belarusian Maryna Slutskaya by yuko in her first round but lost to the French Emile Andeol in the eighth-finals by ippon.

The technical committee will be composed of the coaches Luiz Shinohara, Rosicleia Campos and Mario Tsutsui; the nutritionist Gisele Lemos and the physiotherapists Roberta Mattar and Thiago Takara. The referee Jefferson Vieira also joined the delegation.

Therefore, Brazil ended its participation with five medals. In terms of number of awards, this performance is better than last year’s, when there were just four: gold conquered by Maria Suelen Altheman (+78 kg), silver by Diego Santos (60kg) and Tiago Camilo (90kg) and bronze by David Moura (+100 kg). This Sunday’s keys and the full results can be checked in the attached documents.