Dzhafar Kostoev (UAE) and Leonardo Goncalves (BRA) blistered into the last contest of the category with Kostoev looking for the cross grip and sumi-gaeshi straight away. He made a mistake in his preparation though and then almost crawled into Goncalves’ sankaku. Escaping that wasn’t too difficult but he left his arm open in the process and almost lost it! It was clear that one was leading in tachi-waza and the other in ne-waza.
Eventually Kostoev found his entry, spinning around his opponent and throwing for ippon from that original cross grip with yoko-guruma. This is his first grand slam gold and it was a fantastic performance.
Double world champion Jorge Fonseca (POR) and world champion Arman Adamian (IJF) met to decide who would take the first bronze medal of the category. It was close to begin with although Adamian seemed to be edging the kumi-kata battle. With just under a minute to go, Adamian caught Fonseca and scored, transitioning immediately into osae-komi. Fonseca submitted and the bronze medal was Adamian’s.
Ivan Felipe Silva Morales (CUB) was determined to be the recipient of the second bronze medal but Azhdar Baghirov (AZE) wasn’t going to give it up easily. The Cuban took the lead with a yuko from a driving o-uchi-gari and although there was plenty of time left and a lot more great judo to be seen, the scoreboard didn’t need to be updated further and Silva Morales could be happy with his day’s work.
Final (-100 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-100 kg)
