Georgia’s Lasha Bekauri took his own sweet time to return to competition after the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. His strategy for doing so was a bit strange.
Instead of going straight into the IJF World Tour, Bekauri decided to take part in a relatively smaller European Open competition.
At the Oberwart European Open Bekauri had an entertaining semifinal and final, fighting two siblings from Austria.
In the semifinal, he met Shamil Borchashvili, who normally fights at U81kg. Bekauri threw him twice, first with tsurikomi-goshi for waza-ari and then soto-makikomi for waza-ari-awasete-ippon.
That took him into the final, against Wachid Borchashvili, whom he threw with a slick whirling ouchi-gari that scored ippon.
His win in Oberwart will surely be a boost of confidence for Bekauri, whose next competition should be the Tashkent World Championships.