Matthias Casse made another statement with his performance at the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv.
It was a tense final, with two of the strongest men of the moment in the category, against Sagi Muki. There was no big throw but a lot of very interesting kumi-kata. What is important is that after almost four minutes of golden score, Matthias Casse, who was maybe a little fresher than his opponent, concluded with a unique style of juji-gatame for ippon, concluding a great day of judo.
The hierarchy was perfectly respected at U81kg where the two top seeds, the reigning world champion and world number two Matthias Casse (BEL) and Vedat Albayrak (TUR), fifth in the world and winner of the Baku Grand Slam last year, found themselves in the final of a particularly tough category.
It is interesting to note that this final is the third meeting between the two men and corresponds to the final of the 2021 European Championships, which saw the victory of the Turkish athlete. It was 2-0 for Albayrak before this Tel Aviv Grand Slam.
In his powerful and stable style, with his seoi-nage or his sumtemi-waza, Casse passed the elimination phases without really putting himself in danger. Master of his nerves, he tired all his opponents one by one to again reach the final of an event on the circuit, demonstrating his great consistency at this level.
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