Clean sweep U60kg for Mongolia at opening day

The first gold medal for Mongolia was captured in the category U60kg, an expected title, but World champion Ganbat Boldbaatar (MGL) lost out to Tbilisi Grand Prix bronze medallist Dashdavaa Amartuvshin (MGL). Mongolia won won all four medals in the men’s lightest weight category, a clean sweep for the home nation.

GANBAT, who was wearing a red backpatch as the reigning world champion from Chelyabinsk 2014, and DASHDAVAA could not be separated after five minutes and went into golden score with the fans gripped by seeing two of their top judoka going toe-to-toe. DASHDAVAA extended his impressive head-to-head record against GANBAT, as he has now claimed five of their seven meetings, with an ouchi-gari earning ippon and gold on this occasion. 

In the first semi-final GANBAT scored a yuko and waza-ari to see off former European champion Sofiane MILOUS (FRA) while in the second semi-final DASHDAVAA defeated teammate and Zagreb Grand Prix bronze medallist GANBOLD Kherlen (MGL) on shido penalties in a scoreless encounter.

The first bronze medal was claimed by GANBOLD who outperformed world number 188 Gusman KYRGYZBAYEV (KAZ) in a thoroughly entertaining contest which had an outcome that was lapped up by the home crowd. A yuko from the home fighter was the first and only score of the contest as GANBOLD was in all-out attack mode in the early stages of the contest.              

The second bronze medal went to Samsun Grand Prix bronze medallist TSENDOCHIR Tsogtbaatar (MGL) who blasted his way past world number 24 MILOUS by ippon from a drop seoi-nage. TSENDOCHIR made a positive start as he lifted his more experienced opponent up into the air with a ura-nage attempt but MILOUS turned out to avoid giving away a score. With 85 seconds remaining the Mongolian struck and punched the air in celebration as he looked to the crowd who responded with a huge cheer and applause.