The silver medalist in Tokio Eduard Trippel cancelled his trip to Tbilisi in the last moment. The German judoka was going to return to the mat after deserved months of holiday after the Olympic games.
In Japan he had to defeat former World Champion Nemanja Majdov (SRB), former World Champion Gwak Dong-Han (KOR), and World Silver medallists Krisztian Toth (HUN) and Mihael Zgank (TUR). Getting past these top players was a feat in itself.
Since the Olympics, Trippel has not taken part in any IJF competitions but was set to do so in the upcoming Tbilisi Grand Slam but cancelled in the last moment, maybe because he wasn’t able to make his weight as he had to cut another 5kgs. Among the top players that will contend in Tbilisi are Krisztian Toth (HUN), Beka Gviniashvili (GEO) and Shoichiro Mukai (JPN).
Over the years, Trippel has fought Toth six times and their head-to-heads is 3:3. So, they are pretty evenly matched, but at the last time they fought was at the Tokyo Olympics, where Trippel won. Toth will miss a a grudge match in Tbilisi now, but they will meet in the future for sure…
Trippel fought Gviniashvili five times and lost four of those times. Their last encounter was at the 2021 IJF World Masters, where he lost to the Georgian.
Trippel has fought Mukai only once, at that was quite recent, in the Mixed Team event at the Olympics. There, he lost to Mukai.
So, we will have to wait for his first competition since the Olympic Games for Trippel and that might become the Grand Slam in Budapest. But if you check out his Instagram page, you will notice that he has been training hard. He’s sure to give it as good as he’s got next time.
