The Grand Prix competition in Zagreb, Croatia ended Sunday evening with another medal for members of the Israeli judo delegation.
After young judoka Tohar Butbul won the gold medal at the prestigious competition on Saturday evening, his fellow Israel delegation member, Peter Paltchik, won the bronze medal in the under 100 kg weight category.
After the rest of the Israeli judokas - Uri Sasson, Lee Kochman, Inbal Lanir and Raz Hershko - were disqualified in the early stages, the stubborn Paltchik did not give up and earned an additional honor for Israel when he won a second medal in the competition, his third in 2019 - all of them bronze medals.
Paltchik won the bronze medal on Sunday evening after winning the Georgian Tabelroy in the second round and overcoming German Karl-Richard Frey after a long battle in the third round.
In the quarterfinals, Paltchik performed a waza-ari on Simeon Catharina of Holland, and in the semifinals he was stopped by Shady El Nahas of Canada who performed a waza-ari earlier and maintained it until the end.
The Israeli did not let the loss break his spirit and at the end of the decisive battle for the bronze medal against his Hungarian rival Miklós Cirjenics, whom he also won at the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi in 2017, Paltchik did it again when he performed a waza-ari after less than a minute and retained his advantage thanks to good tactical work.
Next month, the Israeli delegation will leave for the World Championship in Tokyo, where the Olympic Games will be held in about a year.