That feeling was quickly dissipated, however, by Ayub Bliev (AIN) in round 2. The 26-year-old has been one of the strongest athletes in the category in the past year, winning three grand slam medals, including gold in Antalya in March. The neutral athlete stunned the audience at the Mubadala Arena by throwing Nagayama with uchi-mata-sukashi two minutes into golden score to score waza-ari and send the 28-year-old home early.
Bliev proved that he wasn’t just a one trick pony. He went on to defeat Ariel Shulman in round 3 with a swift juji-gatame transition in the opening exchange of golden score. In the quarter-final he met 2015 world champion Yeldos Smetov (KAZ), who looked in good form after defeating double world bronze medallist Won Jin Kim (KOR) in round 2 and Portugal Grand Prix 2024 silver medallist Michel Augusto (BRA) in round 3.
Smetov was just one second away from victory over Bliev as the clock ran out; he secured a hold down after an incredible ne-waza sequence, but Bliev managed to escape after an agonising 9 seconds. Smetov had nothing left in the tank after that incredible effort and Bliev countered a weak kata-guruma attempt from the Kazakh with sumi-otoshi to score waza-ari in golden score and progress to the semi-final as the winner of pool B.
The leader of pool A was Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Yung Wei Yang (TPE), who progressed through the preliminaries to meet Bliev in the semi-final. Against Jorre Verstraeten (BEL) in round 2, he used an unusual combination of seoi-nage and sukui-nage to score waza-ari and hold on for the win. Faced with Youssry Samy (EGY) in round 3, he used his trademark kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame to hold the Egyptian athlete for ippon in less than two minutes.
Yang’s opponent in the quarter-final, Roman Valadier Picard (FRA), was disqualified for attempting a throw against Yang’s straightened arm and unfortunately for Bliev, he suffered the same fate against Yang in their semi-final. With that, Yang breezed into his first ever world final at the sixth time of asking.
Pool C was swept aside by the number seven seed Giorgi Sardalashvili (GEO). The young Georgian was junior world champion in 2021 and took senior world bronze last year in Doha. He gave yet another performance well beyond his years in Abu Dhabi. He overcame Kwang Jin Chae (PRK) in round 2 using o-uchi-gari, before throwing Chong-You Lin (TPE) for ippon with sode-tsurikomi-goshi just 13 seconds into their round 3 contest. In his quarter-final, he came from behind to beat Turan Bayramov (AZE), scoring waza-ari-awasete-ippon using o-uchi-gari and later yoko-shiho-gatame.
The winner of pool D gave a similarly impressive performance. Taiki Nakamura (JPN) filled the void left by his teammate Nagayama, holding down and defeating both last year’s world silver medallist Dilshodbek Baratov (UZB) and Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Luka Mkheidze in the early rounds. After an epic 7-minute quarter-final contest with 2023 world bronze medallist Harim Lee (KOR), he scored waza-ari with a strong seoi-nage to book a semi-final bout with Sardalashvili.
With both judoka in top form, something had to give and it was Sardalashvili that made the breakthrough with one minute of the contest remaining. A strong hikikomi-gaeshi attack scored him a waza-ari, which was enough to see him through to a first senior world final at only his second attempt.
The final was one of the greatest seen at a world championship in recent times. Yang dominated the early exchanges, beating Sardalashvili to the first attack every time, and the Georgian quickly picked up two penalties. However, Sardalashvili worked his way back into the match, forcing two false attacks from Yang and two penalties for his opponent as a result. The fight entered golden score and both fighters continued attacking at an exhausting rate.
Sardalashvili secured a hold-down, but Yang escaped after a few seconds and later secured his own, much tighter hold down after an extended period on the ground, but Sardalashvili produced yet more heroics to escape after 7 seconds. In the following exchange, the Georgian struck the deciding blow, countering a low seoi-nage attempt from Yang to take him backwards to score waza-ari. Sardalashvili becomes senior world champion at just 20 years of age, a remarkable feat which will give him masses of confidence going into the Paris Olympic Games. Yang’s silver is still his best result in a world championship and he will be looking to go one better at the Games.
Smetov (KAZ) took on Nakamura (JPN) for the first bronze medal; the Kazakh fighter progressed through the repechage due to Valadier Picard’s disqualification. The contest featured several tense gripping exchanges, with Nakamura coming close to scoring early on with some strong ashi-waza. The Japanese athlete maintained a much higher attack rate throughout and, with 30 seconds of the contest remaining, produced an incredible sode-tsurikomi-goshi attack to score a thunderous ippon. Nakamura earns his first world bronze medal in his first attempt and looks to be a future star of the weight category for Japan.
The second bronze medal was awarded to Lee, after Bliev’s earlier disqualification for attempting to throw against the elbow. This is the Korean’s second world bronze medal in a row after his performance in Doha last year and confirms his place as one of the top seeds for the Paris Olympic Games.
Final (-60 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-60 kg)
