With the way clear, Pavliukov could dream of a final, but in the next round he stumbled in front of Rustam Shorakhmatov (UZB), who was not one of the favourites of the day. The Uzbek advanced to the final after his victory against the Italian Jean Carletti who until then had shown good things.
In the second part of the draw, the favourites were no match for the Japanese Dota Arai who qualified for the final after a first ippon from an aerial uchi-mata against Giorgi Baduashvili (GEO), then a waza-ari and an ippon, still with a left-handed uchi-mata against Bogdan Petre (ROU), two waza-ari against Joes Schell (NED), and finally ippon against Parviz Abdurakhmonov (TJK) in the semi-final; a job well done.
The final between Shorakhmatov and Arai promised to be explosive and it began with powerful attacks coming from both athletes. Nobody had a clue in which direction it would go. Eventually it was Arai who chained o-uchi-gari attacks with a terrific ko-soto-gari that laid Shorakhmatov out, flat on his back. One more ippon for Arai and the gold medal was his, one more for Japan. The athletes showed great sportsmanship at the end of the final, celebrating the judo values.
The first match for a bronze medal saw Andzhei Pavliukov (AIN) and Parviz Abdurakhmonov (TJK) face off. Spectacular all day long, Andzhei Pavliukov concluded his competition day with a massive counter-attack for ippon and the bronze medal.
Joes Schell (NED) and Jean Carletti (ITA) completed the final block of the category. Joes Schell was clearly the one who wanted the medal. After a first waza-ari score, he concluded with a massive classic o-uchi-gari for ippon.