Orlando Polanco

Havana, Jun 14 (JIT) - A very meritorious performance recorded Cuban Orlando Polanco (66 kg) when he disputed the bronze medal of the Budapest 2025 World Judo Championship against two-time Olympic champion and owner of four world crowns, Japan's Hifumi Abe.

Polanco, seeded in the second round, started the tournament with a close one-yuko victory over Serbia's Strahinja Buncic.

He then surprised Russian Murad Chopanov, eighth in the world ranking, recent European runner-up, and favorite to win pool B, whom he defeated in just 16 seconds with ippon.

That put him in the quarterfinals against Narmandakh Bayanmunkh, representative of the United Arab Emirates, whom he took out of the way with waza-ari, which earned him the right to appear in the semifinals.

In the semifinals, the current world runner-up and second in the IJF world ranking, Japan's Takeshi Takeoka, was waiting for him. Takeoka projected him with ippon in less than a minute of combat.

In the dispute for the bronze medal, he met Abe, one of the best exponents of this division in history, as he has two Olympic titles and four others in world competitions.

In that fight, the Asian won his sixth medal at this level, leaving the Cuban in a meritorious fifth place, after an excellent tournament.

Finally, the Japanese Takeoka won, and the Tajik Nurali Emomali won the silver medal, Abe and the also representative of Tajikistan, Obid Dzhebov, climbed the podium as bronze medalists.