Moldovan judoka Denis Vieru in 2023 remained on top of his -66 kg weight category in the world rankings, IPN reports.

The Ministry of Education and Research said the athlete at the end of last year had 6,580 points, with 766 points more than Mongolian judoka Baskhuu Yondonperenlei, who ranks second.

According to the official website of the European Judo Union, Denis Vieru is “one of the most dynamic and exciting judoka on the World Judo Tour, who started and ended the year as world ranked number one in the -66kg category”.

Denis Vieru kickstarted the year 2023 with a bronze at the prestigious Paris Grand Slam, clinched a silver at the Masters and towards the end of the year, added another two Grand Slam bronzes (Baku and Tokyo) to his collection. He finally won the senior Europeans back in November in Montpellier.