With a highly unusual combination of sumi-gaeshi to koshi-guruma, Sebastian Teran won his semi-final, under constant pressure from his Russian opponent. Five minutes of contest time and not a single shido to be found between them, this was an impressive battle, ultimately won by the higher ranked athlete.
FInal: Sebastian Teran (USA) vs Narek Davtyan (ARM)
World number one Teran made virtually no mistakes all day and in the final he dominated again. Davtyan, under real pressure from the first “Hajime” did all he could but Teran just had no chinks in his armour.
With a minute and a half to go, a ko-uchi-gake attack from the Armenian saw the American counter with uchi-mata for a waza-ari. Confident ne-waza and mature positioning in tachi-waza left no space for a comeback and so Sebastian Teran is now the -55 kg cadet world champion.
At the end of the first day of competition, Teran spoke to the IJF media team, “I’m still going through the emotions but I'm super happy with how I fought today; that was my main goal. It's big progression from last year and next year is going to be even better. Hearing the American anthem from the top of the podium while representing the US is a really big feeling, the best feeling in the world.”
Bronze medal contest: Noham Benkrouidem (FRA) vs Vitalii Lykhohliad (UKR)
This was a great contest between two young judoka with great potential, but only one could win and on this occasion it was Noham Benkrouidem who threw for a yuko in the dying seconds of normal time.
Bronze medal contest: Bobur Yusupov (UZB) vs Tamerlan Unezhev (RUS)
Bobur Yusupov came on to the tatami with only one objective: to win! He opened his bidding with a yuko inside the first minute and did not slow down from there. Unezhev tried to attack but slight hesitation affected his rhythm and gave Yusupov all the control.
An ashi-waza with 1 minute and 25 seconds left on the clock gave him a second score and 30 seconds later he countered a much faster version of his Russian opponent for a waza-ari. It looked to be all over, but as Unezhev finally found his rhythm a huge mistake from Yusupov almost turned the tables. He climbed on to Unezhev’s back as Unezhev was standing up and was promptly thrown. It was assigned an ippon call initially but was downgraded on review.
Bobur Yusupov almost lost the title but enjoyed a reprieve at the hands of a clear video replay. What a contest!
Final (-55 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-55 kg)
Final Results (-55 kg)
