Two Japanese world champions with the same name in two categories

Japan threw some serious flies into the ointment, arriving without seeding but with pace and technique and determination. Unseeded, all of them, they took hold of the reigns placing one athlete after another into their respective finals. Four world titles in one day that is impressive. After Miyaki, Fukuda and Kamiya, it was the turn of another Fukuda to reach their respective final; Yamato Fukuda this time, which is actually exactly the same name as the winner of U60kg. Like his teammates, he was unranked and had to begin his tournament without the advantage of a more open first round.

We can never repeat it enough, among juniors this advantage is entirely relative, as the judo is more open and less tactical. It's even more relative with Japanese athletes. When all this is put together we easily understand that these same Miyaki, Kamiya and the other Fukuda are the future of Japanese judo and we can already say that it is rather radiant.

It remained to know who Fukuda's opponent would be and finally it was the world number 4, Eran Fiks (ISR), who took advantage of the situation and reached the final.

Of course it was almost written in advance that no-one could defeat the Japanese today as already three categories were won by Japan but Eran Fiks wanted to be the one, the first one, the one on top and yes he did everything and was so close to stealing the gold medal.

Actually, it wouldn’t have been a steal because he really produced amazing judo against Fukuda and even scored a waza-ari with a seoi-nage that was very close to ippon. In judo, though, a contest ends when ippon is called and in the end, it was Fukuda who cleverly avoided Fiks’ further attacks, to apply a shime-waza for ippon.

Congratulations to both judoka. A great match is when you have two great competitors and today we had them. The fourth gold medal was for Japan.

In the first contest for a bronze medal, Zhanarys Rakhmetkali (KAZ) and Viljar Lipard (EST) faced each other. The latter had a really good day, producing some powerful judo throughout, but this last contest was a little too much for him. Totally dominated by Zhanarys Rakhmetkali, he was penalised three times and the bronze medal was for Kazakhstan.

Japan, with Keita Hadano (JPN), had another chance of a medal. For this he had to face Tengo Zirakashvili (GEO). After a few seconds, Zirakashvili could breathe again when he was thrown for ippon with a fast ippon-seoi-nage but the score was corrected to waza-ari. Tengo Zirakashvili could never catch Hadano's pace and had to bow out conceding the bronze medal to Japan and Keita Hadano.

The first four categories have been decided and at the end of this first day, Japan have asserted themselves as the world leaders, perhaps also throwing down the gauntlet for the team event in four days time.