Stand and cheer for Amber Lanir. The Israeli judoka (up to 78 kg) recorded an extraordinary achievement today (Friday) when she was crowned world champion after a victory in the final over the 33-year-old Frenchwoman Audrey Chomeau. Thanks to the win, the national anthem of the State of Israel is expected to be played on the soil of Qatar, which is known to be a hostile country to Israel.
In addition, in the men’s competitions, Peter Palchik, who only a few days ago became the father of twins, won the bronze medal after his opponent in the decisive battle for the medal was injured and retired, giving the Israeli the shiny medal.
We will return to the world champion. Until Lanir’s crazy achievement, only two judokas had won the world gold medal before her – Jordan Jarbi who became the world champion in 2013 and Sagi Muki who was crowned the world champion in 2016. Now, a decade after Jarbi’s win, there is another new world champion for Israeli judo and Nir is making a significant leap up the ranks. From now on, the whole world knows the new star of the industry.
Lanir broke out just before the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020, with offensive judo and a lot of fighting spirit. Lanir was a partner in the great achievement by winning the team bronze medal at the Olympic Games – and now she has made a significant personal leap forward. The coach of the women’s team, Shani Hershko, raised another world champion.
In the semi-finals, Lanir met Italy’s Alice Blundi for a battle, falling behind Vasari and still winning on the iPhone. Even earlier, Lanir started against Poland’s Beata Pakot and won thanks to Vozary the bronze medalist from the last World Championship in the second round. In the third round she defeated Patricia Brulich from Slovenia and advanced to the quarterfinals, where she met the Chinese Zanzao Ma and also increased her progress on the way to the dream day which she completed with the sparkling gold.
In men, Peter Pleczyk, European champion for 2020, competed with a weight of up to 100 kg. He opened the competition in the second round, in a fight against the Japanese Kantro Ida in which he won by Ipon. In the third round he met the Russian Niaz Ilyasov, won and advanced to the quarter-finals, but there he lost to Zilim Kotsoyev by disqualification for an illegal defensive move.
Palachik went down to the consolation bracket, where he met the Kazakh Nurlikan Sharqian and beat him in the Vasari. He was supposed to fight for the medal against the Canadian Shady Alanachas, but the Canadian team announced that Alanachas did not compete in the fight against Falchik, so the Israeli went to an empty mat and officially won the medal.
At the age of 31, Pelchik finally wins a medal at the World Championships, which will naturally place him as a candidate for an Olympic medal in Paris 2024. Before him, medals were won in this competition by the men’s team Sagi Muki, Eric Zavi, Golan Polak, Tal Flicker and team coach Oren Samadja.
