Kenta Nagasawa wins home Grand Slam for the first time

Japanese Nagasawa Kenta won an all-Japanese final in Tokyo to win his second Grand Slam of the season. Ekaterinburg Grand Slam winner Nagasawa conquered Zagreb Grand Prix bronze medallist Kobayashi Yusuke (JPN) in the final with an uchi-mata after 30 seconds which had the crowd salivating.

The Japanese winner left an impression on everyone in attendance Olympic champion Baker Mashu (JPN) who is plotting his comeback for early 2018. Kobayashi, 24, secured the best result of his career with silver and the U90kg category will be an intriguing affair for the Japanese next year with rising judoka and a returning champion all in the mix.

In the first semi-final former Rio Grand Slam bronze medallist Eduardo Bettoni (BRA) lost to Nagasawa by three scores. Nagasawa held down the Brazilian for ippon having led by two waza-ari scores. In the second semi-final Kobayashi defeated world number 25 David Klammert (CZE) by ippon.

The first bronze medal was won by 21-year-old Asian Championships bronze medallist Mukai Shoichiro (JPN) who outfought Klammert to claim a narrow win by a waza-ari score.

The second bronze medal went to world bronze medallist Ushangi Margiani (GEO) who came from behind to pin down Bettoni for ippon with a powerful kesa-gatame hold.

Read all the news of the Tokyo Grand Slam