Gripping penalties opened the bidding in the first minute but that just galvanised Kanikovskiy who opened up and delivered a masterclass. An uchi-mata for waza-ari was followed by a clinical transition phase. He locked up the head and shoulders of Arai, freed his trapped leg and calmly held him for the second score.

Kanikovskiy looked like a world champion from the first round and by the end of the day, the crown was his. No-one has dominated a category as obviously during this championship, except perhaps his teammate on day 5, Arbuzov. What a pair!

Seheon Kim (KOR), new to medal contests on the IJF circuit, faced a giant of the current era, world and Olympic champion Zelym Kotsoiev (AZE), for a bronze medal. The young Korean did all he could but he was up against a challenge no-one could have expected him to beat and after 90 seconds he was thrown for ippon. Kotsoiev came for gold but regardless of his goal being usurped by Arman Adamian in the preliminaries, he would make it to the podium.

In the second bronze medal contest of the -100 kg category, 2023 world champion Adamian (IJF) faced UAE’s Dzhafar Kostoev. It was supposed to be a physical affair but Adamian had no intention of meeting Kotsoev halfway. After less than 40 seconds he launched his opponent with a massive uchi-mata for a waza-ari and then finished on the ground, completing his ne-waza series for the day; 5 contests, 4 wins, all 4 victories with osaekomi!