Cuban Ivan Silva was crowned today at the Upper Austrian Judo Grand Prix 2025, hosted by the city of Linz, in what was his first title in the 100 kg division.
Also he began the tournament with ippon over the young frenchman Francois Ngayap when they barely passed the second minute of combat.
He then beat the czech David Dudy by yuko at the end of the regulation four minutes and this gave him the possibility to discuss the pass to the semifinals against the romanian Eduard Serban.
That fight lasted until just over the third minute when the main decreed the hansoku-make for the former world champion of cadets and meant the advance of the Cuban.
Looking for a place in the final, Silva defeated ukrainian Anton Savytskiy, also by hansoku-make after eight grueling minutes. In the final he was to face hungary’s Krisztian Toth, a well-known rival in the 90 kg category, with a record that includes two world medals and the bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Iván Silva and Toth had not met since the semifinal of the Tel Aviv 2023 Grand Slam, in which the European won after an intense fight that lasted more than seven minutes.
This time the Matanzas native took revenge and showed remarkable resistance for his new body weight, as he needed another Golden Rule and more than six minutes in the final to win the crown.
Moreover he thus achieved the best performance of a Cuban so far this season, and his third personally counting the two bronze medals achieved in the grand slams of Paris and Tashkent.
With Silva’s performance, Cuba finished in eighth place in the overall standings, which was led by Japan with two titles, four subtitles and six bronze medals.
By: Raul Hernández Lima /Translated by Radio Angulo
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