Day two of the Dushanbe Grand Slam judo championships finished in the best possible way for hosts Tajikistan, with Muhiddin Asadulloev and Somon Makhmadbekov winning their respective categories and propelling Tajikistan to the top of the medal table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All eyes were on world number two Asadulloev, fighting at home and with an entire arena behind him. His route to the men’s -73kg final wasn\u2019t easy but he arrived for the final block determined to reach the top step of the podium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Facing the Tajik hero was Karen Galstian of Russia who\u2019d had a great morning session. He delivered dynamic judo throughout the preliminaries and would like to have had the chance to do the same in the final. However, Asadulloev was more than ready. After only 30 seconds he adjusted his grip, anticipating what was about to happen. As he did, Galstian attacked with a committed uchi-mata and Asadulloev countered it perfectly for ippon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the final, Asadulloev said, \u201cAlthough after the Asian Judo Championships I was exhausted, the crowd in Dushanbe gave me additional energy to win at one of the most important events to me. I overcame all difficulties and delivered the gold medal to my nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just like his teammate in the lighter weight category, Somon Makhmadbekov fulfilled the brief, reaching the men’s -81kg final and igniting the crowd\u2019s hopes of another airing of the national anthem. In the final he would have to pass Austria\u2019s Bernd Fasching, a physical competitor with a progressing career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Makhmadbekov opened proceedings with a powerful o-soto-otoshi, putting a yuko straight on the board. Fasching chased and chased but with less than a minute not go had made no significant headway. Makhmadbekov was becoming more and more confident that the gold was his and as the time ran out, he thrust his arms in the air. He had done it, joining Tajikistan\u2019s growing list ion medallists at their home grand slam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Mongolian derby of extremely high quality, between two world medallists, made for quite a spectacle in the women’s -63kg final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enkhriilen Lkhagvatogoo and Gankhaich Bold were reluctant to put themselves at risk against an adversary they know well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The contest lacked pace and began to earn penalties, two each way by full time. In golden score the third penalty was given to Lkhagvatogoo and so Bold could breathe a sigh of relief; the gold was hers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the final Gankhaich Bold said, \u201cWe know and respect each other very well. It was a tough match and we did not surprise each other. Competing in Dushanbe is always a pleasure though and with this gold, I have extra motivation for Astana.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the women’s -70kgfinal, Aleksandra Kowalewska of Poland arrived to undertake a mammoth task, facing double Olympic medallist Michaela Polleres of Austria for gold. From the first \u201chajime\u201d Polleres seemed in control but her pace slowed as Kowalewska rose to the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With 90 seconds to go, the Polish athlete attempted a seoi-otoshi which was close to delivering a yuko score. This was a warning but Polleres struggled to heed it. Kowalewska continued to use the seoi-otoshi, sometimes combining it with other techniques. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A score did not look far away. It wasn\u2019t! As the golden score period began she threw Polleres for a waza-ari with ko-uchi-gari. Kowalewska looked shocked while Polleres looked frustrated but the former, just 21 years old, had won her first grand slam medal and won it well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Day two of the Dushanbe Grand Slam judo championships finished in the best possible way for hosts Tajikistan,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[106],"class_list":["post-12554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-judo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Muhiddin-Asabulloev-TJK-vs-Karen-Galstian-RUS.-.jpg",1978,1147,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Muhiddin-Asabulloev-TJK-vs-Karen-Galstian-RUS.--150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Muhiddin-Asabulloev-TJK-vs-Karen-Galstian-RUS.--300x174.jpg",300,174,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Muhiddin-Asabulloev-TJK-vs-Karen-Galstian-RUS.--768x445.jpg",640,371,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Muhiddin-Asabulloev-TJK-vs-Karen-Galstian-RUS.--1024x594.jpg",640,371,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Muhiddin-Asabulloev-TJK-vs-Karen-Galstian-RUS.--1536x891.jpg",1536,891,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Muhiddin-Asabulloev-TJK-vs-Karen-Galstian-RUS.-.jpg",1978,1147,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Muhiddin-Asabulloev-TJK-vs-Karen-Galstian-RUS.--825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Muhiddin-Asabulloev-TJK-vs-Karen-Galstian-RUS.--590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Muhiddin-Asabulloev-TJK-vs-Karen-Galstian-RUS.-.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12556,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12554\/revisions\/12556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}