RESULTS -40kg

The first medal contest of the first day was a short affair with the Polish athlete finding her space to win with a shime-waza technique in the first exchange. The first medal of this world championships was for Poland.

The next contest almost finished in ne-waza in the opening seconds too as Aurora Ferro came close to catching Shvaigert with an inverted sangaku but an escape was possible and so the two fighters reset to go again. From that point on, the contest was much closer but the Italian stayed ahead and won on penalties.

In the final, Martin Carriches scored an early waza-ari with seoi-otoshi but was then under great pressure from the French judoka. However, she held her nerve and her score and at the end of the allotted 4 minutes Martin Carriches was crowned world cadet champion.

RESULTS -50kg

In the first of the two bronze medal contests, Byambasuren was lightning fast in the transition phases and with only a minute gone he applied a well drilled and very fast shime-waza for ippon.

The second bronze medal could have gone to either competitor with both attacking throughout but following an unsuccessful seoi-otoshi from Filho, Husiyev countered with a low and very fast uchi-mata for ippon.

This was an all-action final, both fighters delivering in both tachi-waza and ne-waza, consistently hunting for ippon. In the end it was a counter in golden score which gave Toptygin the score he craved and the gold medal to go with it.

RESULTS -44kg

The first bronze medal in the second women’s category of the day eventually flew to Spain after a 6 and a half minute contest. Two penalties apiece were accrued for small infringements, mistakes which will be rectified in the months and years to come, but the win was assigned with a positive score after Garcia Sanchez changed tactic and pinned Ruslanova with a very tightly executed sangaku turnover.

Puente Lopez (ESP) then joined her teammate on the podium after throwing Bogus with a beautifully placed seoi-otoshi which scored ippon, after a minute and a half of contest time.

The final was close, very close, neither athlete quite defined by a particular style, still developing their technical range and finding space to surprsie one another. There were tomoe-nage, o-uchi-gari and seoi-otoshi attempts in all corners of the mat and with no effort to step out or to give the other a chance to take the victory, they occupied more than 7 minutes of our time and it was enthralling. Tomankova eventaully took the victory, her second title at world cadet level, and as she left the tatami she jumped into the arms of her coach and father. It was a job well done.

RESULTS -55kg

The unseeded American had taken the group by surprise in the morning session, throwing the number one seed, Gal Blazic (SLO), for ippon in their second round contest. He continued to fight well but couldn’t reach the final and in the bronze medal contest he lost out to Heydarov, unable to gain enough ground back after conceding a waza-ari in the middle of the contest.

The world number 15 and world number 25 faced off for the penultimate medal of the day but the contest only lasted 37 seconds as Abdulaev threw the Italian with kata-sangaku which is strictly forbidden. Hansoku-make is never the call an athlete wishes win or lose by but in order to preserve the safety of the judoka, sometimes it is necessary. Thomas Sassi takes the second bronze medal of the category.

In the final, Mongolia’s Batbileg would have an uphill climb against the 2023 world cadet champion at -50 kg. Mamashov has been a force majeure at this world championship and his skill and resilience have been rewarded with his second gold medal in as many years. He held Batbileg for ippon early in the contest. The Mongolian is awarded his first world medal, a silver.

At the end of the first day, Spain lead the medal table with a gold and two bronze medals. Azerbaijan climbed to second place with Mamishod's win in the last contest of the day. There is still no telling which nation will be on top at the end of day 4 but it is already a hotly contested event with 11 nationas reaching the final block of day one alone. This is fantatsic to see at cadet level, pointing to a bright and diverse future for the juniors and seniors in the coming years.

Day 2 begins at 10:30am. Join us on JudoTV throughout the day.