Japanese Ryuju Nagayama grabs the World Junior title
Mongolian talent Tsendochir Tsogtbaatar was the most established name in the U60kg category and the Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix bronze medallist progressed to the final only to meet 2011 cadet world champion Nagayama Ryuju of Japan who produced a flurry of ippons on his route to gold.
Tsendochir appeared to be in some discomfort as he held his back throughout the contest and Nagayama sensed that weakness as he launched his opponent with a booming drop ippon seoi-nage which earned the applause of one of his country’s greatest lightweights of all-time, Hosokawa Shinji.
In the first semi-final French Junior European champion Walide Khyar lost to Tsendochir by the unusual margin of four yuko scores without reply. In the second semi-final African Games gold medallist Ahmed Abelrahman of Egypt succumb to East Asian Championships winner Nagayama with 10 seconds left by waza-ari from an uchi-mata.
The first bronze medal was won by Korean Kim Channyeong who defeated Abelrahman by a yuko score while the second bronze medal went to Walide Khyar who used his upper body power to pick up Neil Macdonald (GBR) and throw for ippon.
Result | City | Date |
---|---|---|
2 | Paris | 30 Jul |
1 | Abu Dhabi | 21 May |
1 | Zagreb | 26 Apr |
3 | Belgrade | 2023 |
2 | Montpellier | 2023 |