Israeli Judoka Sagi Muki defeated South Korean Judoka Lee Seung-su in a waza-ari on Tuesday at the Doha Masters 2021 competition in Qatar, winning the bronze medal, KAN News reported.
Muki defeated Russian Judoka Aslan Lappinagov in a waza-ari after a four-minute fight, Italian athlete Christian Parlati in a waza-ari after a 6:09 minute fight and lost to Dutch Judoka Frank de-Wit in an Ippon after one minute. A waza-ari is when a referee signals who the winner is, an ippon is like a knock-out in a boxing match.
Muki continued to face Austrian competitor Shamil Borchashvili and defeated him in an ippon after 2:13 minutes, after which he met Lee Seung-su and won the bronze medal. Georgian Judoka Tato Grigalashvili won the gold medal and de-Wit the silver medal.
This is the second medal won by an Israeli athlete in the competition after Baruch Shmailove won a silver medal on Monday. Muki and Shmailove compete in different weight groups, up to 178 pounds and up to 145 pounds respectively. This was the first professional event Muki participated in after nearly a year. Both Israelis won silver medals at the same competition last year.
Iranian Judoka Saeid Mollaei, who currently resides in Germany and competes under the Mongolian flag, lost in his third match and so the issue of him competing against Muki didn’t come up. While the two athletes reportedly have a cordial relation, the Islamic Republic of Iran pressures its athletes not to compete against Israelis.Mollaei argued that he was pressured to drop fights in the past due to this political issue.