ON THE SAME day Egyptian footballers qualified for the 2018 World Cup, Ramadan Darwish gave the country another sweet victory after claiming the gold medal in the -100kg Judo Tashkent Grand Prix. Unfortunately, the victory of the mighty judoka went virtually unnoticed in the middle of the all-night World Cup celebrations. Darwish, the former world bronze medalist, won the Tashkent Grand Prix for a second time as the top seed was the big performer in the -100kg category. Darwish took the contest to the Ekaterinburg Grand Slam silver medalist Niyaz Ilyasov of Russia and scored a waza-ari from a buzzer-beating uchi-mata with just a second left on the clock. The Egyptian moved onto 11 Grand Prix medals which includes four gold and two from Uzbekistan while 22-year-old Ilyasov earned his best finish at the Grand Prix. In the first semi-final Darwish bested former Asian Championships bronze medalist Saidzhalol Saidov of Tajikistan by a waza-ari score to take his place in the -100kg final and guarantee a medal for Egypt as his country's lone representative in Tashkent. In the second semi-final Ilyasov downed former Junior European Championships bronze medalist Mikita Sviryd of Bulgaria by a waza-ari from an uchi-mata. Darwish The first bronze medal was won by 2016 Tashkent Grand Prix silver medalist Davronbek Sattorov of Uzbekistan who threw Sviryd for an ippon with 49 seconds left on the clock to boost his country's medal haul on the last day in Uzbekistan. Sattorov slapped his chest and screamed in celebration to a raucous response from the crowd. The second bronze medal went to Asian Championships bronze medalist Sherali Juraev of Uzbekistan who conquered Saidov. Even the smallest of movements from the Uzbek was met with roars of approval from the home fans but mistakes from Saidov settled the contest as a third shido -- for breaking the grip off illegally -- against the Tajikistan judoka meant hansoku-make and bronze for Uzbekistan.
