Murao had not won by all big scores in the earlier rounds but he looked stronger and stronger as the day progressed and let’s be clear that his red backpatch is sewn on his judogi for a reason. Murao, even though challenged by another top level judoka, stayed calm and dominant. He threw with uchi-mata and the referee initially gave it ippon but the review system downgraded it to waza-ari. So, Murao gripped up and simply did it again; what an incredible display of his ability.

In the first bronze medal contest, 2024 junior world champion Komei Kawabata (JPN) faced Minki Song (KOR). It was a dynamic contest with serious attacks coming from both sides. Eventually Kawabata took the win with a well timed o-uchi-gari.

Giorgi Jabniashvili (GEO) gave Tiziano Falcone (ITA) a very hard time but the Italian didn’t take it lying down. However, Jabniashvili forced the matter and scored a waza-ari with a well prepared seoi-otoshi. This remained the only score on the board until the clock ticked down to zero and so the medal went to Georgia.