Mammadali Mehdiyev starts with gold in new Olympic cycle

The first final of the day opposed Mammadali Mehdiyev (AZE), bronze medallist at the Tashkent Grand Slam 2021 and Luka Maisuradze (GEO), bronze medallist a few weeks later in Kazan.

Being under the pressure of having two penalties against him, Mammadali Mehdiyev nevertheless, was the first and last to score, with a precise ko-soto-gake for ippon, leaving no escape possible for Maisuradze. This is the second gold medal of the event for Azerbaijan.

In the first bronze medal contest Wachid Borchashvili (AUT), whose brother was Olympic bronze medallist this summer in Tokyo, faced Stanislav Gunchenko (UKR), who had no record at this level of competition, so far. A minute and 49 seconds of the golden score period were necessary for Wachid Borchashvili to score ippon after a very close match that was only decided with penalties.

With four grand prix bronze medals to his name already, Jesper Smink (NED) had the possibility to add one more, competing against Khalmurzaev Khusen (RUS), silver medallist at the Tashkent Grand Prix in 2019 and twin brother of 2016 Olympic Champion Khassan Khalmurzaev. The latter won the bronze medal after his opponent received a third shido, one second before the end of the match, for a false attack, a mistake that cost him that final step on to the podium.