JERUSALEM - This year's Masters Tournament of the International Judo Federation took place in Jerusalem, Israel, from 20 to 22 December 2022. Nine Belgian judokas signed up for this IJF tournament on the World Judo Tour. This also means that all selected judokas are among the top 36 in the world in their weight category. After all, that is a requirement to participate in the Masters.
Hereafter, we briefly list the bouts of our judokas.
Ellen Salens (-48kg/JS Merelbeke/34 WRL)
Round 1: Victory vs. Chen-Hao Lin (TPE)
Round 2: Loss vs. Abiba Abuzhakynova (KAZ)
Charline Van Snick (-52kg/JC Bushido/32 WRL)
Round 1: Loss vs. Mascha Ballhaus (GER)
Mina Libeer (-57kg/JS Merelbeke/15 WRL)
Round 1: Loss vs. Tsukasa Yoshida (JPN)
Gabriella Willems (-70kg/JC Andrimont/ 15 WRL) – 5th place
Round 1: Victory vs. Kelly Petersen Pollard (GBR)
Round 2: Victory vs. Aoife Coughlan (AUS)
Quarter-Final: Victory vs. Lara Cvjetko (CRO)
Semi-Final: Loss vs. Michaela Polleres (AUT)
Bronze Medal: Loss vs. Saki Nizoe (JPN)
Jorre Verstraeten (-60kg/ JC Inter Gembloux-Wavre/ 6 WRL)
Round 1: Bye
Round 2: Loss vs. Turan Bayramov (AZE)
Abdul Malik Umayev (-73kg/JC Visé/34 WRL)
Round 1: Loss vs. Shakhram Akhadov (AZE)
Matthias Casse (-81kg/JC Fudji Yama Booms/Schelle/2 WRL) – Bronze
Round 1: Bye
Round 2: Victory vs. François Gauthier Drapeau (CAN)
Quarter-Final: Victory vs. Sami Chouchi (BEL)
Semi-Final: Loss vs. Saeid Mollaei (AZE)
Bronze Medal: Victory vs. Antonio Esposito (ITA)
Sami Chouchi (-81kg/JC La Chênaie/6 WRL) – 5th place
Round 1: Victory vs. Abylaikhan Zhubanazar (KAZ)
Round 2: Victory vs. Tim Gramkow (GER)
Quarter-Final: Loss vs. Matthias Casse (BEL)
Repechage: Victory vs. Sotaro Fujiwara (JPN)
Bronze medal: Loss vs. Alpha Oumar Djalo (FRA)
Toma Nikiforov (-100kg/Topsport Defensie/8 WRL) – 5th place
Round 1: Victory vs. Bojan Dosen (SRB)
Round 2: Victory vs. Asley Gonzalez (ROU)
Quarter-Final: Victory vs. Zelym Kotsoiev (AZE)
Semi-Final: Loss vs. Simeon Catharina (NED)
Bronze Medal: Loss vs. Peter Paltchik (ISR)
