Japan continues its race in the lead in the medal standings, but as we pointed out yesterday, without the domination being overwhelming. Today it is therefore Ryuga Tanaka adding a third gold medal for Japan. He was maybe not the strongest today, especially in the final against his Georgian opponent, but he had a greater desire to win. At the end of the day, he is the new world champion at -73kg and that is what we will remember.
At -57kg, Yildiz was seeded number one. Since yesterday, there was a sort of curse hanging over the top seeds who reached their finals but failed to win the gold medals. Yildiz was therefore the first to achieve the double: top seed and eventually world champion. It is not insignificant. The pressure of being the favourite of the competition clearly had an influence on the lighter categories but this was not the case for the Turkish champion and for that alone, beyond her fine performance, she can be warmly congratulated.
In the last category of the day, among women at -63kg, we saw, as in the other two categories, a lot of commitment and desire to do well, a lot of sweat and incredible new medallists. It is certain, when a day like this ends, you feel the fatigue accumulated through the rounds, but you also see that the last efforts launched in the battle can make the difference and this difference can make you a world medallist. In the case of Joanne Van Lieshout, it is a second gold medal in a row after her first title obtained in Olbia last year; a fine performance!
For the third day of competition, it will be the women -70kg and the men -81kg and -90kg who will be in action from 11:30am, while the final block will begin as usual at 4:00pm local time. Follow the action on https://live.ijf.org