Marc Odenthal grabs first Grand Prix title

Former Paris grand slam bronze medallist Marc Odenthal (of Germany defeated former Astana Grand Prix winner Ustopiriyon Komronshokh of Tajikistan for top spot in the -90kg category. Odenthal won a first grand prix title by way of a yuko score after both judoka were gunning for gold. Ustopiriyon, who won bronze here in 2013, was supported by the international judo federation to compete in Tashkent and showed his worth having finished fifth at the world championships in August.

World champion Gwak failed to reach the final block after he was stunned by Dmitri Gerasimenko (SRB) in the quarter-final as he submitted the Lorean star with a juji-gatame.

In the first semi-final Ustopiriyon who was backed by the crowd all day, held down Sherali Juraev (UZB) for 15 seconds to win by wazari-awasette-ippon while in the second semi-final Odenthal (GER) defeated world number 57 Dmitri Gerasimenko (SRB) by a waza-ari.

 the first bronze medal was awarded to home fighter and losing semi-finalist Juraev who outlasted former Zagreb Grand Prix bronze medallist Karolis Bauza (LTU) in golden score. With no scores to show for  a lethargic five minutes, the contest required golden score with both men on the brink of disqualification with three shidos each to their name for passivity. Bauza was penalised for the fourth and final time for a false attack to hand the medal to the Uzbek judoka. The second bronze medal went to Rome european open bronze medallist Mihael Zgank (SLO) who threw and then held down Gerasimenko (srb) for wazari-awasette-ippon both judoka were targeting their first grand prix medal and that honour was claimed by the Slovenian fighter after he caught his Serbian opponent with an osoto-gari and followed up by osaekomi for 15 seconds.