-90kg Gold: Murad Fatiyev (AZE)
Murad Fatiyev didn’t have to do any throws in his first match. He won it by penalties. It took less than two minutes for Vlad Visan (ROU) to get his third shido. He second match, against Umar Bozorov (UZB) was a lot harder. Within a minute and a half, both players had two shidos each. Just as it seemed like the match would go into Golden Score, in the dying seconds, Fatiyev did a drop kata-guruma that scored waza-ari. He immediately clamped on a pin for waza-ari-awasete-ippon. His next match, against Astermir Abazov (RUS) was also a hard one, and Fatiyev scrapped by with a yuko from tani-otoshi to get to the semifinal, where he faced Theodoros Tselidis (GRE). He won that one by yuko from sasae-tsurikomi-ashi. The final promised to be the hardest match yet, against double Olympic Champion Lasha Bekauri (GEO), who had beaten him three times before. But this time, Fatiyev was the one who prevailed. As they reached the three-minute mark, Bekauri did a sloppy sacrifice technique. Fatiyev took full advantage of that and threw the Georgian almost completely on his back. Waza-ari was given. A desperate Bekauri threw caution to the wind and attacked Fatiyev with another sacrifice technique. As Bekauri got up from the attack, Fatiyev took him down for a yuko. After that, he just ran out the clock and earned himself the gold.
-78kg Gold: Kaila Issoufi (FRA)
Kaila Issoufi had a good first round, throwing Shoira Aminova (UZB) with drop seoi-nage for yuko, then tomoe-nage for waza-ari, followed by a pin for waza-ari-awasete-ippon. After that, she met the tough Japanese player Mami Umeki. Neither one could score but Issoufi was clearly the aggressor. She attacked Umeki with tomoe-nage over and over again. Umeki got her third shido before regular time ended. In her semifinal, against Aleksandar Babintseva (RUS) she continued with her strategy of attacking relentlessly with tomoe-nage but this time it scored – four times (one waza-ari and three yukos). Her final match was against the lanky German player, Anna Monta Olek. Again, Issoufi was the aggressor and she took some bold moves. She scored yuko with a lunging kosoto-gake where she attacked Olek’s leading leg. Then she did it again, the exact same move, attacking Olek’s leading leg. She very nearly got countered but waza-ari was given to her. She immediately clamped on a juji-gatame and got the submission for ippon.
-100kg Gold: Said Sadrudinov (BRN)
Said Sadrudinov’s kicked off his campaign with a bang, throwing his first opponent, Alexandru Sibisan (ROU), for ippon with a very unusual technique that can best be described as a cross between Said Mollaei’s reverse kata-guruma and sumi-gaeshi. He attacked Han Juyeop (KOR) with a lunging bear hug which forced the Korean to go to the ground. From there, Sadrudinov rolled him over into a pin for ippon. His semifinal match was a tough one, where he faced Olympic Champion Zelym Kotsoiev (AZE). There was no score in the first three and a half minutes, then following a bear hug attack, Sadrudinov launched into an uchimata that very nearly scored ippon. Waza-ari was given. But Sadrudinov immediately clamped on a pin for ippon. In the final, his opponent, Ernazar Sarsenbaev (UZB) score first with drop seoi-nage for yuko and managed to maintain that lead for much of the match. But with just four seconds left in the match, Sadrudinov scored with a massive headlock osoto-gari for ippon.
+78kg Gold: Akira Sone (JPN)
Akira Sone (JPN) threw her first opponent, Durdona Nizomaddinova (UZB) with ashi-guruma for ippon. Then, she threw the much-bigger Niu Xiran (CHN) with a cross-grip drop seoi-nage for ippon. She had to rely on a penalty win against Asya Tavano (ITA). But in her semifinal, against Ruslana Bulavina (UKR), she was back to throwing. Although Bulavina was bigger than her, Sone was able to take her down with ouchi-gari for waza-ari and then clamped on a pin for waza-ari-awasete-ippon. Her final opponent, Lea Fontaine (FRA) was considerably bigger than her but again, Sone was able to sneak in a very low ouchi-gari. It scored only a yuko but it was enough to win her the match.
+100kg Gold: Kanan Nasibov (AZE)
Kanan Nasibov (AZE) is a rather unorthodox player. He threw his first opponent, Islombek Ravshankulov (UZB) with an ouch-gari for waza-ari from a bear hug where he gripped his opponent’s belt with both hands, followed by a pin for waza-ari-awasete-ippon. Against Yelaman Yergaliyev (KAZ), he adopted a Georgian grip and used it to force the Kazakh player down to the ground. He then applied a turnover to pin him for ippon. In his seminfinal match, against Bislan Katamardov (RUS), he again used a Georgian grip but this time to do hikikomi-gaeshi, which scored ippon. His final opponent was the very athletic Alisher Yusupov (UZB) who took him to time. As they entered into Golden Score, both players had two shidos each. A failed sumi-gaeshi by Yusupov allowed Nasibov to first attack him with ude-garami but then he transitioned into a hold-down for the win.
