-60kg: 10th Gold for Nagayama

In the second part of the table, the world number three and bronze medallist of the last worlds, Harim Lee (KOR), did not have too much difficulty to reach the semi-finals, where he found Romain Valadier Picard, recent winner in Austria, at the first Upper Austria Grand Prix. It didn't take too long for Valadier Picard to throw Lee with a superb seoi-nage movement, immediately followed by an armlock, that left the Korean judoka flat on his back after only 23 seconds. With Ryuju Nagayama having already won his semi-final, we knew the poster of the final: Nagayama vs Valadier Picard. Based on what we had seen in the morning, everything was possible.

Things did not appear to be easy for the young Frenchman, as his opponent, Ryuju Nagayama, before this final already had no less than 9 grand slam gold medals and 2 World Judo Masters golds, to name only a few achievements. It can not be said that Valadier Picard didn't try, but the fact is that he still has some steps to climb before reaching Nagayama's level at his best. There is no doubt that he will reach that level and today was a good judo lesson from the Japanese champion. He scored a first waza-ari with an aerial uchi-mata and double it with a te-waza-counter-attack to grab his 10th gold medal in a grand slam!

The first bronze medal contest saw Nurkanat Serikbayev (KAZ) and Harim Lee (KOR) facing off. The normal time was a collection of acrobatic attacks coming from both sides but neither Serikbayev nor Lee could score. When the golden score period began Serikbayev was under pressure though, as he had two shido to his name. The third penalty was not long from being given, offering the bronze medal to Lee.

Ramazan Abdulaev (AIN) and Sumiyabazar Enkhtaivan (MGL) competed in the second bronze medal contest. It was tense and intense. With two shido apiece, it was difficult to say who would would come off the tatami as the winner, but unfortunately Sumiyabazar Enkhtaivan did a head dive and was therefore logically disqualified and so it was bronze for Abdulaev.