Gold for local judoka
Zack Piontek beat Africa’s top-ranked judoka at the recent African Open Judo tournament in Mauritius to win the gold medal in the under-90kg category.
When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.
This famous sporting cliché is an excellent description of the performances by Zack Piontek (Tuks/hpc) at the African Open Judo tournament in Mauritius during the past weekend.
Piontek won the gold medal in the under-90kg category, which gained him 100 international ranking points, and in all probability improved his ranking by three positions to about 24th.
Should Piontek sustain this ranking, he could qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio.
Piontek showed character in winning the tournament.
The Tuks/hpc judoka admitted he snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat in two of his encounters.
“My first fight, against Rastam Alimli (Azerbaijan), was a thriller right up to the last second. With literally only eight seconds left he managed to throw me for a yuko [earns an advantage] which too him to the verge of victory but I was not going to give up.
When we resumed the fight, I started chasing him and he kept moving backwards, not wanting to risk physical contact. Unfortunately for him, with only one second remaining, he stepped off the judo mat.
This cost him a fourth penalty point which cost him the fight and gave me the victory.
“My second fight, against Andrew Burns (Britain), was also special. At last year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, I managed to beat him but in the semi-finals of last year’s African Open he beat me. So I was eager to regain the lead in our one-on-one battles, and fortunately ended up winning quite easily.
“My opponent in the semi-final was Italy’s Walter Facente. The Italian dominated the fight in the beginning. I just could not get to grips with his fighting style but decided there was no way I was going to allow myself to be beaten. I managed to regroup and to get my focus right. When I saw an opportunity I moved in and went for the big throw. It was successful and I threw the Italian for an ippon [earns highest score] which gave me the victory.
“I am very proud of the way I won because I had to dig deep.”
In the final, Piontek beat Africa’s top-ranked judoka, Abderrahmane Benamadi of Algeria.
“It was also a special victory. We have fought quite a few times over the past years, and Benamadi usually won, but this year I seem to be able to get the better of him. Apart from beating him now I was also victorious in Russia earlier this season,” he said.
Piontek has no plans of slowing down. If everything goes according to plan he will compete in two more tournaments this year; first in Korea at the end of November, and then Japan.
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