Lasha Shavdatuashvili prolongs Paris title

The final U73kg in Paris delivered a final between two athletes who made name one division lower but found their success in the U73kg division. With Georgia’s hero Shavdatuashvili sprinting from the top spot in round one to the semi-final. Although it wasn’t really a sprint, with two golden score contests, against Sulli (ITA) and Shamshayev (KAZ) but experience and will were the favoured tools and they did their job.

Number 2 seed, Brazil’s Olympic medallist Daniel Cargnin, looked sharp on his way to the other semi-final, while in pool 4, the 3rd seed, Margelidon (CAN) endured almost 22 minutes spread over only 3 contests, defeating home athlete Axus in a marathon that resulted in the crowd’s disappointment.

In the final, between the top and second seeds, the spectators were offered two Olympic medallists, two fantastic day one judoka, but the stronger of the two was the Georgian, clearly and spectacularly. The world number one threw Cargnin just outside the first minute with a smooth left-sided koshi-guruma. Lasha have a big smile and a wave looking satisfied with his day’s work.

The Canadian Arthur Margelidon lost to Shamshayev (KAZ) for bronze who had just beaten France’s Gaba in the repechage. The Kazakh’s o-uchi-gari scored waza-ari at the halfway point but that was enough to secure his bronze medal.

Kang of Korea also lost his bronze medal match, thrown with a sumi-gaeshi for ippon at only 42 seconds into the contest against Uranbayar Odgerel of Mongolia.