The Jcuban udoca Andy Granda, world champion of the + 100 kilograms division, was included among the nominees by the International Federation of that sport for the award as the best male exponent during the year 2022.
The Pan-American champion also shares the candidacy with the Georgian Tato Grigalashvili (81 kg), the Mongolian Tsend-Ochir Tsogtbaatar (73 kg), the Uzbek Davlat Bobonov (90 kg) and the Japanese Hifumi Abe (66 kg), also winners of the title in the Tashkent 2022 universal appointment, according to a note published by the official newspaper Granma.
Congratulations to our 2022 Male Judoka of the Year nominees!? #JudoAwards
?? Tattoo Grigalashvili
?? Andy Granda
?? Davlat Bobonov
?? Tsogtbaatar Tsend-Ochir
?? Hifumi Abe
Voting TOMORROW at https://t.co/dEW2rRezNN!
?From 12th January to 31st January
?Winners – 5th February pic.twitter.com/lhLG2GjEq8— Judo (@Judo) January 11, 2023
In the category of best female judoka, the Brazilians Mayra Aguiar and Rafaela Silva, the Croatian Barbara Matic, the French Romane Dicko and the Japanese Uta Abe stand out.
Add the information that the judo governing body in the world also announced the candidates for the award in other categories such as Judo for Children, Coaching for Achievement, Judo for Peace, Best Ippon, Moment of the Year and Rising Star.
As announced by the IJF in its Web pagethe winners will be announced in February, at the Grand Slam in Paris, from the voting of the public who loves this sport, open until January 31 on the aforementioned digital platform.
In the World Cup held on Uzbek soil, Granda defeated the Japanese Tatsuru Saito in the final and raised his accumulated points to 4,432, which allowed him to ascend to the third place in the world ranking of his division.
Granda from Matanzas won the scepter in the Pan American and Oceania Championships, held last September, and won the bronze medals in the European Open Tournament and the Grand Slam in Antalya, Turkey, both held last April.
