Men U73kg many casualties but An and Hashimoto stable

Since 2010 the category U73kg has been dominated by Japan with consecutive world champions in Akimoto, Nakaya, Ono, Nakaya, Ono and Hashimoto. The last one can finally make the double.

Was Hashimoto convincing? Not super, but he is in the semi final. Zhansay Smagulov of Kazachstan gave him a real tough match, but Hashimoto was stable, not in panic at all and finished Smagulov off with an excellent ippon.

Also Guillaume Chaine showed Hashimoto good judo and made it to the golden score like Smagulov. Victim of the Kazakh was Akil Gjakova (KOS) in a great match but Smagulov showed everything what it needs to take for a medal today.

In Pool B Odbayar Ganbaatar (MGL) defeated Zingg, who overcame Dirk van Tichelt in the first round. In the end Ganbaatar lost to Hidayet Heydarov (AZE) who was expected in the final stage and reached the semi final.

Rustam Orujov (AZE) though didn’t survive the shift. Orujov lost to Tsend-Ochir Tsogtbaatar, another Mongolian at this important day for them. Tsogtbaatar lost to An Changrim who might be the major challenger for Hashimoto in the final, maybe even the favourite given his form.

Olympic champion Fabio Basile (ITA) didn’t even survive the first round. Same for Arthur Margelidon (CAN) and also Bouchard lost fast to Ungvari.

Today’s big surprise is the semi final for Mohammad Mohammadi of Iran. He came on top against Lasha Shavdatuashvili in the quarter final. Mohammadi defeated Tommy Macias (SWE) in a tough pool. Shavda overcame Benjamin Axus (FRA), but still has a chance to win bronze.

In the first semifinal, we could see Hashimoto vs Heydarov. The home advantage factor might be enough to push Heydarov over the top and allow him to beat Hashimoto although he's already been beaten twice by the Japanese. The smart money's on Hashimoto though. In the second semifinal, we think An will be the one who gets through to the final against the dark horse Mohammad Mohammadi, but yesterday we learned, dark horses can survive the semi finals.

Semi finals:

Soichi Hashimoto vs Hidayet Heydarov

An Changrim vs Mohammad Mohammadi

Repechage:

Zhansay Smagulov vs Odbayar Ganbaatar

Tsend-Ochir Tsogtbaatar vs Lasha Shavdatuashvili