Lasha Shavdatuashvili defeated to gold by Tatalashvili

European silver medallist Nugzar Tatalashvili GEO) won Georgia’s first gold medal of the competition by upsetting his compatriot Olympic champion Lasha Shadavtuashvili. After a tense opening both judoka settled down and attacked with purpose and the will of Shadavtuashvili was broken first as he was caught with a tani-otoshi for a waza-ari.

In the first semi-final Paris Grand Slam bronze medallist Victor SCVORTOV (UAE) lost out to SHAVDATUASHVILI (GEO) after an epic contest which required six additional minutes in golden score. They traded shido penalties until the last second and finished the regular time with three each to send the contest into golden score. With both judoka breathing heavily and the crowd chanting ‘Georgia’ the hard-fought battle continued for another six minutes until SHAVDATUASHVILI was awarded a yuko for narrowly countering a ura-nage attempt. In the second semi-final TATALASHVILI (GEO) outlasted Dusseldorf Grand Prix bronze medallist Musa MOGUSHKOV (RUS) who found new way through with repeated sutemi-waza attempts and in the closing seconds received a shido for a false attack in the scoreless contest.

The first bronze medal was clinched by MOGUSHKOV who defeated Jeju Grand Prix winner Serhiy DREBOT (UKR). MOGUSHKOV blocked a sutemi-waza effort from DREBOT who had a medical bandage around his chin after an inadvertent collision in the preliminary rounds. The Russian judoka successfully turned to ashi-waza to unlock the Ukrainian’s defence with a ko-soto-gari after three minutes for ippon. The second bronze medal was won by European Championships bronze medallist Zebeda REKHVIASHVILI (GEO) in a comprehensive win over SCVORTOV. The Georgian picked up a waza-ari after 90 seconds followed up with ippon to become the third Georgian on the -73kg medal podium.