JudoToma Nikiforov was in his day at the European Judo Championship. The 28-year-old Brussels resident dominated today in the category up to 100 kilos and even settled in the final with the Georgian Varlam Liparteliani, the number one in the world ranking. Just like in 2018, he can call himself European champion.
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Toma Nikiforov is back and how! At the European Championships in Lisbon, he just literally swept the floor with the Georgian Varlam Liparteliani – not the first best. The 32-year-old Georgian is not only vice-Olympic champion but also number one in the world ranking. And he was always a size too big for Nikiforov. But in Lisbon, Nikiforov referred those stats to the wastebasket – he was the boss in his weight class. He countered an attack from Liparteliani, threw him on the back – ippon and gold for Nikoforov. Four years after his first European title, he was back on top. Only Robert Vandewalle did that to the Belgian men, with gold in the -95 in 1985 and 1986 (although he also won European Championship gold in the open category in 1980).
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Now Toma Nikiforov went to the European Championship in Lisbon with great confidence. The Belgian with Bulgarian roots, who lost almost a year to knee and shoulder injuries, climbed by gold at the Grand Slam of Tashkent and bronze in Tblisi from 53rd to 20th place in the world ranking – right back on track for a Olympic ticket. A liberation.
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However, the Brussels resident had less luck in the draw: in the first round he immediately met a difficult customer: Elmar Gasimov, eleventh in the world ranking in the category up to 100 kilos. More hopeful, however, was that the Azeri is for him. Their two most recent camps – in Baku in 2019 and in Düsseldorf in 2018 – each turned out in favor of Nikiforov.
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And today, too, Nikiforov quickly took the upper hand. After just over a minute, he scored waza-ari, after which Gasimov faced a difficult task. Nikiforov took two more shido – punishments – but fought out the four minutes wisely. Also in the second round, Nikiforov was the first to score against Mikita Sviryd (IJF 25), after which he checked again.
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Same story in the quarterfinals against Frenchman Cyrille Maret (IJF 33) – already a bit older (33) but experienced rotten, including Olympic bronze in 2016 on his resume. Nikiforov dominated and quickly scored a waza-ari, then held control for three minutes.
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In the semi-finals he met Ilia Sulamanidze (IJF 32), very young and clearly an emerging talent: he won silver at the Youth Olympic Games in 2018 and was vice world champion in the juniors in 2019. Sulamanidze was to be feared: Nikiforov had to give up in the semi-finals in Tblisi.
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Today, however, Nikiforov put things in order. He almost managed to end it quickly, but Sulamanidze still got out of his grip – it stayed with waza-ari. But Sulamanidze did not give in and countered himself with waza-ari. The semi-final seemed to turn out to be a golden score, but in the final seconds Nikiforov was still able to surprise the Georgian.
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His countryman Varlam Liparteliani did not even get four minutes from Nikiforov. After two minutes, the strong Georgian was on his back. Nikiforov roared, his fingers rose into the air. He’s back.
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