In Dushanbe

Judo: Grand Slam titles for Piovesana and Polleres!

Lubjana Piovesana(Bild: GEPA)

A good two and a half months before the Olympic Games, Austria's judo team performed excellently at the Grand Slam tournament in Dushanbe among a total of 390 athletes from 65 nations! Lubjana Piovesana won her second title at this level in the up to 63 kg category, Michaela Polleres her third in the up to 70 kg category. Wachid Borchashvili also made it to the final in the 81 kg category. However, he was defeated there, leaving him with just one Grand Slam title. 

Piovesana beat Eter Askilashvili (GEO), Russia's Kamila Badurova and European Championship bronze medallist Savita Russo (ITA) ahead of time. In the final, she also won her third duel with Russia's Dali Liluashvili - with Waza-ari. The woman from Vorarlberg won her first Grand Slam title in Baku in February. Piovesana has been fighting for Austria since the start of 2023 and has now moved from outside the top 100 into the top ten in the world rankings. "Lulu" now has her Olympic ticket in the bag: "I'm proud to have won two Grand Slam titles in just a few weeks."

Like her compatriot, top-seeded Polleres came out on top against Gabriella Willems (BEL), Szabina Gercsak (HUN) and Anka Pogacnik; the 2021 Olympic silver medallist had last lost to the Slovenian six times in a row. Polleres secured the 1,000 points for the world rankings with two waza-ari against Lara Cvetko, the 2022 World Championship silver medallist and 2024 European Championship bronze medallist. The 26-year-old last won a Grand Slam title in Antalya at the end of March, and before that in Tashkent in 2023. "What we've been training recently has worked. Now the World Championships can come," said Polleres.

"Incredible, simply crazy!"
Borchashvili's success would have completed the perfect ÖJV day, as there were no other athletes from the Austrian camp competing on Saturday. However, the student world champion Yoshito Hojo (JPN), who has not yet appeared so often internationally, won the duel with Ippon. Borchashvili had previously triumphed against Mohamed Rebahi (QAT), Tomas Morales (ARG), Zaur Dvalashvili (GEO) and Timo Cavelius (GER) and was ultimately very satisfied: "I'm back on the podium after half a year, which feels really good."

"What an incredible day for us," said ÖJV Sports Director Markus Moser in Tajikistan about the ÖJV sweep. "This has never really happened before. Now we're even leading the national rankings." For head coach Yvonne Snir-Bönisch, the performance of her protégés made for a "historic day, simply crazy".