Often placed, but more rarely on the podium, Abylaikhan Zhubanazar (KAZ) nevertheless acted as favourite with his 16th place in the ranking and he began his tournament in the best spirits by eliminating all his opponents, one after the other. After a bye, he defeated Sunatullo Musoe (TJK) in a tactical victory, and eliminated Theodoros Demourtsidis (GRE), then Dimitri Goshiladze (GEO).
In the next round, in the semi-final, he found Yoshito Hojo (JPN), without any major references yet on the international circuit, apart from a victory at the very beginning of the season in Portugal, including wins against Saeid Mollaei (AZE), Joonhwan Lee (KOR) and Vedat Albayrak (TUR) all on the same day.
This should have been a warning for the number one seed because it was the Japanese judoka who won to reach the second final of his career at a World Judo Tour event. The Dushanbe contract is already fulfilled for Hojo who is gaining experience for the years to come.
In this pool B where Hojo won, we can highlight the poor performance of Sharofiddin Boltaboev (UZB), who in the second round did not find a solution against David Karapetyan (AIN) and lost on penalties, just before the neutral athlete was defeated by Hojo.
In the second half of the draw, the hierarchy was respected, since it was the top seed of pool C, the Austrian Wachid Borchashvili, who made his way through the elimination phases. After a bye, he sent Mohamed Rebâti (QAT) back to the locker room via two waza-ari before the end of time. Then it was the turn of Tomas Morales (ARG) and Zaur Dvalashvili (GEO) before he ruined the final hopes of Timo Cavelius (GER) with a superb kata-guruma for ippon.
The final started with a super strong kata-guruma attack from Borchashvili that was perfectly controlled by Hojo. Calm and quiet, the Japanese judoka was just waiting for his moment and it came during a sequence on the floor. Controlling perfectly the upper part of the body of his opponent, he then took his leg out twice. A first waza-ari was followed by a second to wrap up the contest and give him a second victory from only two World Judo Tour participations. Hojo is undefeated at the international level and this may well not stop in the near future.
The first bronze medal was contested between Dimitri Gochilaidze (GEO) and Timo Cavelius (GER). If the first part of the contest looked a little messy, step by step Gochilaidze took the lead. First, he scored a waza-ari with a counter-attack as Cavelius probably thought that they were already on the floor, but that was not the case. The second score was a massive o-soto-gari turned into an ashi-waza technique for an impressive ippon. The bronze medal was for Gochilaidze and Georgia.
To complete the podium, Adam Kopecky (CZE) and Abylaikhan Zhubanazar (KAZ) met, providing a chance for the number one seed to save his day. Zhubanazar was fast to score a first waza-ari with a change in direction and a kata-guruma conclusion. That should have been a strong warning for Kopecky but that was not enough as Zhubanazar applied exactly the same strategy and technique a little further into the contest to score a second waza-ari. Abylaikhan Zhubanazar wins the bronze.
Final (-81 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-81 kg)
