Uzbekistan judo nation with golden Shohjakhon Otaboev

The U66kg category was the first of the men’s groups in the tournament not to see a French athlete qualify for the final. Kylian Noel was seeded number one but failed to progress. Instead, it was Uzbek Shohjakhon Otaboev, Asian cadet champion, and Georgian Saba Samadashvili, reigning European cadet champion, who competed for gold at the Sarajevo Cadet World Championships.

It didn't take long to discover the new world champion of the category as Samadashvili launched a de-ashi-barai in just two sequences that left Otaboev flat on his back. It was the second gold of the day for Georgia, now on the heels of France in terms of medals.

Despite Noel's miss, Alexis Renard represented the French team in the first match for a bronze medal, against Dimitrios Gionnopoulos. A fine technician, Renard was bothered the whole match by the cross-grip of his opponent, who eventually, a few seconds before the end, scored a waza-ari to take the bronze medal to Greece.

To complete the podium it was a fight between Federico Bosis (ITA) and Nijat Naghiyev (AZE). Based on what they showed during the morning, fireworks were announced and expected and we had them, with a magnificent yoko-otoshi that gave absolutely no chance to Naghiyev. Ippon for Bosis gave a third medal to team Italy.