Dominican judoka Medickson del Orbe won the silver medal on Saturday, 19 August 2023 at the Zagreb 2023 Grand Prix in Croatia. In the 81 kg final, Medickson lost (2-1) against the Israeli Sagi Muki, who won gold.
With the medal, Del Orbe added 490 points to his account in the world ranking in his quest to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Dominican judoka has Wander Mateo as his coach. He scored the first point with 3:10 minutes left in the bout, but with 1:50 left, Muki equalized the actions and scored the second point with 54 seconds left in the regulation time, thus proclaiming himself the champion of the 81 kilograms of the Zagreb competition.
Del Orbe, who won Group B, had advanced to the final after defeating (1-0) in the semifinal round against Ukraine’s Mykhailo Svidrak. He defeated (1-0) Portuguese Joao Fernando in the quarterfinals.
In the preliminary round, the Dominican defeated Slovenian Jus Mecilosek (1-0), as well as Croatian Dominik Druzeta (2-1) and Swiss Aurelien Bonferroni (2-0).
Del Orbe had recently won the silver medal at the Pan American Open in Guayaquil; bronze at the Central American and Caribbean Games and gold at the Pan American Open in Santo Domingo.
In the World Judo Championships, held in Doha and the Grand Slam of Tel Aviv, Del Orbe fell in the third round of the qualifying rounds in both events.
The president of the Dominican Judo Federation, Gilberto Garcia highlighted what the medal obtained by Medickson del Orbe means for the country. “The fact that Medickson was among the top athletes in his division means a lot to us because he stood out as one of the best in that world championship event,” said García.
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El Nacional
21 August 2023