+100 kg: Tasoev Doubles His World Title

It was an immense contest between two great fighters, all-action from the first ‘hajime.’ Tasoev went for a big attack at the halfway point but was countered and a yuko went against him. The result of that was Tasoev finding another gear and he almost immediately threw back, a sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi which earned a waza-ari nd put Tasoev back in the lead.

Tushishvili chased as hard as anyone could to score again but Tasoev had it covered and held on to the lead for the remaining 50 seconds to become world champion for the second time. His gold medal was then presented by 5-time Olympic gold medallist (2 from the mixed teams) and 12-time world champion (including 1 men’s team gold) Teddy Riner and double Olympic champion and 4-time world champion David Douillet. What a moment! What a podium!

In the first bronze medal contest Ushangi Kokauri (AZE) and Temur Rakhimov (TJK) hunted for position, knowing they could only initiate a throwing action when well-balanced and placed, to avoid being countered. Kokauri found his marks first and threw for a waza-ari but Rakhimov’s reply was swift. He put all his weight behind a huge o-soto-otoshi, throwing for ippon and taking yet another big medal.

Rakhimov improves his already consistent position on the world stage by winning his first senior world medal while Kokauri leaves in 5th place. Temur Rakhimov has placed in the top 8 at 6 out of his 7 senior world championship appearances but this time he reaches the podium, a satisfying finish to his day.

Tamerlan Bashaev (IJF), remembered for ending a long unbeaten run for Teddy Riner at the Tokyo Olympic Games, was up against 2024 world champion and Olympic silver medallist Minjong Kim (KOR) for the second bronze medal of the category.

They fought with pace and precision, each reacting perfectly to the other’s strong attacks. Bashaev almost succeeded with an excellent seoi-otoshi just after the 2-minute mark but Kim escaped and soon after attacked with his own kata-guruma, which Bashaev escaped from too. It wasn’t until the golden score period that Kim managed to counter a failed ko-uchi-gake and register a waza-ari next to his name on the scoreboard.