World champion Hashimoto retains Masters title to end 2017 on top

World champion Hashimoto Soichi won his second World Judo Masters title in a row as he returned to the top of the podium after a minor blip at home when he won bronze at the Tokyo Grand Slam two weeks ago. The 26-year-old made sure that he will finish the year with number one spot on the World Ranking List to pocket a $50,000 bonus and all the bragging rights at home.

Hashimoto defeated London 2012 Olympic champion and Rio 2016 bronze medallist Lasha Shavdatuashvili (GEO) by a waza-ari score which came from an osoto-gari. The -73kg rivals are two classy operators and two of the most popular judoka in the category and offered a frenetic opening before a moment of outstanding quality from the red backpatch owner decided the winner. 

In the first semi-final Hashimoto defeated European champion Hidayat Heydarov (AZE) by a waza-ari score which came with 30 seconds left on the clock and with both judoka having two shidos to their records. In the second semi-final Tashkent Grand Prix silver medallist Giyosjon Boboev (UZB) submitted to a juji-gatame from Shavdatuashvili.

The first bronze medal was won by Zagreb Grand Prix silver medallist Tommy Macias (SWE) who countered an uchi-mata from Boboev for a waza-ari score in golden score.                         

The second and last male bronze medal contest was won by Heydarov over world bronze medallist Ganbaatar Odbayar (MGL) after three minutes of golden score. A waza-ari for the 20-year-old Azeri, who has been one of the breakout stars of the year, from a hip attack steered him to the medal podium on the World Judo Masters stage in the best result of his young career.

Soichi Hashimoto obviously won the bonus of 50,000 USD at the end of the year.

Read all the news about the IJF World Masters in St. Petersburg.