Thus, after the elimination of the tournament's number one seed Simeon Catharina (NED) in the first round, anything was possible and everything was turned upside down quickly in the upper part of the draw, especially since Catharina's victor, the Hungarian Miklos Cirjenics, also lost in the next round against Rhys Thompson (GBR), the latter not managing to pass the Brazilian obstacle, Leonardo Goncalves, in the semi-final.
It remained to be seen who would face Goncalves in the final. Could it be Mathias Madsen (DEN) or Zsombor Veg (HUN), the respective top seeds of their quarter of the table? It was finally, Louis Mai (GER), pointing to a distant 118th place in the world, who bought himself a ticket to the final.
Sometimes a contest begins on a false rhythm. It takes a bit of time for the athletes to evaluate the situation. This was obviously not the the case with this final. Both judoka immediately started to attack in all directions, entertaining the public. As they both engaged on a sideways trajectory, Goncalves turned his back to launch a quick harai-goshi that became an uchi-mata, leaving Mai armless. It was ippon for Goncalves and also a gold medal.
The first match for a bronze medal was between Mathias Madsen (DEN) and Zsombor Veg (HUN). It didn't take too much time for Madsen to score two beautiful waza-ari with makikomi techniques that were both ideally executed and with perfect rotation, with no risk of the head dive.
Mert Sismanlar (TUR) and Rhys Thompson (GBR) battled to complete the podium. Once again we did not have to wait too long since 50 seconds were enough for Mert Sismanlar to score a beautiful ippon with a classic well driven left-handed o-uchi-gari.
Final (-100 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-100 kg)
