Ganbat Boldbaatar end the hopes of Urozboev

The heat at the Grand Prix in Tashkent and the sound level in the venue increased for the final U60kg. One could feel that the final opposed the pocket-size Mongol Ganbat Boldbaatar and the local hero Diyorbek Urozboev. Warmly supported by his public, Urozboev seemed to be in total control of the situation and launched a powerful ko-uchi-gari.

But Ganbat perfectly anticipated the action and countered with a simple but effective te-waza (arm technique) to score ippon. Suddenly the venue went totally silent, before congratulating both athletes for their today's performance.

Moritz Plafky (GER) and Luka Mkheidze (FRA) were opposed in the first male bronze medal contest of the day. Working with the end of the sleeves, the French was bothering his opponent, who couldn't really apply any technique and was penalized for passivity after half of the bout. But while Mkheidze was also dangerous with his counterattacks, it was the German who first countered to score a first waza-ari and take the lead. Surprisingly, Mkheidze didn't seem too bothered that he was one waza-ari behind. But actually when the final gong echoed in the venue, he realized that the bronze medal just escaped from him.

In the second bronze medal contest, Chinese Taipei judoka, Yang Yung Wei faced Mongol, Dashdavaa Amartuvshin. The whole match seemed to be quite balanced until the last seconds as Yang Yung Wei launched a drop-seoi-nage for waza-ari.