Ryuju Nagayama wins second Masters crown
World number one Nagayama Ryuju of Japan conquered a star-laden U60kg field to repeat his 2017 Masters victory as he beat world number seven Francisco Garrigos (ESP) by ippon in the final. Tokai University member Nagayama opened the scoring with a sumi-otoshi and ended the final in style with a uchi-mata-sukashi to put the pressure back on his teammate and three-time world champion Takato Naohisa (JPN) in the race for Tokyo 2020 selection.
In the first semi-final Nagayama beat world silver medallist Sharafuddin Lutfillaev (UZB) by ippon after just one minute as the Japanese ace continued to light up the preliminaries.
In the second semi-final former world champion Yeldos Smetov (KAZ) was pipped by Garrigos of Spain by a waza-ari score.
The first bronze medal was won by world number six Robert Mshvidobadze (RUS) who defeated Smetov in golden score by a waza-ari score to add to Russia’s day one medal haul.
The second bronze medal went to Lutfillaev who prevailed over Abu Dhabi Grand Slam winner Gusman Kyrgyzbayev (KAZ) after the Kazakh picked up three shidos to receive hansoku-make.
Result | City | Date |
---|---|---|
2 | Paris | 30 Jul |
1 | Abu Dhabi | 21 May |
1 | Zagreb | 26 Apr |
3 | Belgrade | 2023 |
2 | Montpellier | 2023 |