Matthias Casse becomes the number 1 in the world in Judo
By winning the Portuguese Judo Grand Prix, Matthias Casse climbed to the top of the world rankings in the under 81 kg category.
On the Almada tatami in Portugal, Matthias Casse put together an excellent series of victories by ippon and accordingly reached the final of the first big tournament of the year. The Antwerp native defeated successively the Mongolian Erdenebayar Batzaya, the Frenchman Arnaud Aregba, the Hungarian Robert Rajkai and the Japanese Yuhei Oino.
In the final, the native of Mortsel needed only 2 minutes and 27 seconds to defeat the Finn, Oskari Makinen, by ippon after a magnificent move.
This victory in the final allows the Belgian to reach first place in the new world rankings which have just been published by the International Judo Federation (IJF). Second before his triumph in Portugal, he now takes first place in the under 81 kg category at the expense of Tato Grigalashvili of Georgia.
The Belgian judoka has started the year 2022 in the same way as the one which has just ended. As a reminder, Matthias Casse won his second Grand Slam tournament in Abu Dhabi at the end of November and before that had brought home a nice bronze medal from the Tokyo Olympics.
Congratulations to Matthias Casse who is writing one of the finest pages in the history of judo!