A good two and a half months before the Olympic Games, Austria’s judo team performed excellently at the Grand Slam tournament in Dushanbe among a total of 390 athletes from 65 nations. Lubjana Piovesana won her second title at this level in the up to 63 kg category, while Michaela Polleres won her third in the up to 70 kg category. Wachid Borchashvili also made it to the final in the up to 81 kg class. But he lost, which meant he was left with a Grand Slam title.
Piovesana beat Eter Askilashvili (GEO), the Russian Kamila Badurova and the European Championship third place Savita Russo (ITA). In the final she also won the third duel with the Russian Dali Liluaschwili – with Waza-ari. The Vorarlberg resident won her first Grand Slam title in February in Baku. Piovesana has been fighting for Austria since the beginning of 2023, and from outside the top 100 she is now in the top ten in the world rankings. “Lulu” has her ticket to the Olympics in her pocket: “I’m proud to have won two Grand Slam titles within just a few weeks.”
Like her compatriot, Polleres, who was top seed, retained the upper hand against Gabriella Willems (BEL), Szabina Gercsak (HUN) and Anka Pogacnik; the 2021 Olympic silver medalist had recently lost six times in a row against the Slovenian. Polleres secured the 1,000 points for the world rankings with two Waza-ari against Lara Cvetko, second in the 2022 World Cup and third in the European Championship in 2024. The 26-year-old last won a Grand Slam title in Antalya at the end of March, before that in 2023 Tashkent. “What we trained last worked. Now the World Cup can come,” said Polleres.
A success for Borchashvili would have completed the perfect ÖJV day, as there were no other active players from the Austrian camp on Saturday. The student world champion Yoshito Hojo (JPN), who has not often appeared internationally, won the duel with Ippon. The 25-year-old Borchashvili had previously triumphed against Mohamed Rebahi (QAT), Tomas Morales (ARG), Zaur Dvalashvili (GEO) and Timo Cavelius (GER) and was ultimately very satisfied: “After half a year I am back on the podium, That feels good, really good.”
“What an incredible day for us,” said ÖJV sports director Markus Moser in Tajikistan about the ÖJV march through. “This has really never happened before. Now we even lead the national rankings.” For head coach Yvonne Snir-Bönisch, the performance of her protégés made for a “historic day, just crazy”.