Nagasawa goes unbeaten for Japan as Toth takes silver on return

At the Grand Slam of Ekaterinburg Japanese Nagasawa Kenta stepped up to the world level with the best performance of his young career as he beat the returning former world silver medallist Toth Krisztian (HUN) in golden score.

Toth, who was making his comeback having undergone shoulder surgery and recently returned to full health, is never involved in flat contests. The Hungarian has a tendency to be locked in the most engaging and dramatic of battles but could not generate his usual power and the contest was scoreless after four minutes. Nagasawa, Tokyo Grand Slam bronze medallist, found an extra gear in added time and, as Japan team manager Inoue Kosei looked on matside, was able to trap Toth on the ground and the latter decided to tap out to save himself for another day as he aims for World Championships at home in August.

In the first semi-final Casablanca African Open winner Nikoloz Sherazadishvili (ESP) lost out to the returning Toth by a waza-ari score. In the second semi-final four-time Grand Slam runner-up Noel Van ‘t End (NED) suffered defeat at the hands of Nagasawa via a harai-goshi at the halfway mark.

The first bronze medal was won by Van ‘t End who made a strong finish as he beat double Grand Slam silver medallist Ushangi Margiani (GEO) in golden score by a waza-ari score for his fifth medal at this level. The second bronze medal went to Magomed Magomedov (RUS) who held down Sherazadishvili for 20 seconds for ippon having sent the Spaniard to the ground with a thunderous osoto-gari which warranted a waza-ari score.