Lightweight Ryuju Nagayama continues gold without blinking

In the men's lightweight category U60kg at the Grand Slam of Paris, again Asia dominated with Ryuju Nagayama (JPN) and Jeon Seung-Beom (KOR) entering the final. Nagayama was junior world champion in 2015 and since then a two-time Masters champion, so it was not a surprise for him. In the semi-final he defeated top seed Karamat Huseynov (AZE).

Once again the surprise came from the other half of the draw, where 23 year old Jeon Seung-Beom, number 125 in the world, defeated local hero, bronze medallist at the Tokyo Olympic Games and winner of the first medal for the French delegation on this occasion, Luka Mkheidze (FRA), who so far had a perfect competition.

After having scored a first waza-ari with a swift achi-waza technique, Nagayama took control of the match despite spectacular attempts from Jeon and he concluded with an immobilisation for ippon. Gold for Nagayama and Japan.

In the first bronze medal match Luka Mkheidze faced his second Korean opponent of the day, Harim Lee. With a very clever combination of standing attacks immediately followed on the floor, Mkheidze kept control of the arm and armlocked his opponent for ippon and a big explosion of joy from the French audience. Even if he missed the final, Mkheidze showed that since his bronze medal at the Olympics, he is now among the top players in the category.

The second bronze medal contest saw Jaba Papinashvili (GEO) facing Karamat Huseynov (AZE). The latter quickly took a strong lead with an almost perfect shoulder movement that landed too much on the side to earn ippon. Huseynov was just about controlling the situation when in body-to-body contact, Papinashvili took his chance and hooked Huseynov with a spinning ko-uchi-gari for ippon.