-90kg: Welcome Back Van T End

Ngayap Hambou (FRA) stepped forward to face this giant of the mat, they circled each other and then it began. An o-uchi from France, an o-soto from Georgia. Within the first minute Bekauri looked to be struggling for air and Ngayap Hambou rained grips down on him and hunted space in ne-waza. Despite a facade of lacking condition, the Olympic gold medallist still looked more dangerous but the attempts from both became wilder and going into golden the Frenchman has two shido on the board. He got one back but Bekauri was pushing the pace and leaning all he had into the o-soto-gari. At 8:44 on the clock Bekauri hugged his opponent tightly and piled into a sasae attempt but Ngayap Hambou turned into it, catching Bekauri around the head and landing with a waza-ari to claim and a look of shock on his face. The crowd erupted! The Olympic champion was out and the 21 year old Frenchman was through a seemingly impossible draw. He then passed Gomes (BRA) and guaranteed his name would be placed in the top 8 of the day. He had already dealt with an Olympic champion and his quarter-final was to be against world champion Van t End (NED).

Silva Morales (CUB) and Maisuradze (GEO) each respected the seeding, reaching their respective semi-finals. However that run only went so far and both ended up in bronze medal contests, after losing their respective semi-finals to Van t End and Fatiyev (AZE), with the Dutchman having beaten Ngayap Hambou comfortably, by two waza-ari scores inside two minutes.

Macedo (BRA) couldn’t hold his ranking and fell at the first hurdle, from his place as number 4 seed, to a ticket for an early exit. It was 2015 world champion Gwak (KOR) who knocked him out but Gwak then lost to unseeded Frenchman Renes, who was also beaten, by Fatiyev (AZE)

The first bronze was contested by Zgank (TUR) and Silva Morales (CUB). The Turkish judoka had made light work of his Senegalese opponent in round one but struggled against USA’s John Joyne, leaving it until the golden score period o throw for ippon. He beat a well supported Mathieu and then lost to the Georgian top seed.

Silva Morales took the medal in a fight that he conducted well. It wasn’t beautiful but it was intelligent.

The second bronze went to Maisuradze who threw a disappointed Klammert (CZE) for ippon. Klammert had enjoyed a good day until then with several strong wins but he just couldn’t take the final step.

The final was the locking horns of two stubborn and determined judoka. At first it looked likely to end with shidos even though the action was not lacking. However, just inside the last minute Noel Van t End caught Fatiyev with a very low rolling left seoi -otoshi for waza-ari and despite being pushed to the edge more than once, held his score and at 31 years old won his first grand slam gold since 2014.