In the final, double world medallist Baskhuu Yondonperenlei took on 2025 world medallist Obid Dzhebov. It was announced as a close final and close it was. At the halfway point, not even a shido had been placed on the scoreboard. Thirty seconds later though, Dzhebov looked ready to take the gold as he stepped in for a big uchi-mata but Yondonperenlei, experienced and robust, was ready and grappled his way to safety. However, it was the last in a short sequence of attacks from the Tajik competitor and so the first shido was for Mongolia.
Three minutes later, already a significant way into golden score and the sc orebaord had not changed. The whoops and cheers from the crowd puctuated the action as near-miss after near-miss, in both directions, thrilled everyone in the arena. Then, one minute later it was decided. Yondonperenlei took a deep grip over one shoulder and pulled Dzhebov on to an inescapable tsuri-goshi. The score was only yuko but in golden score that is always enough. This is the 31-year-old’s 12th grand slam medal but only his second gold. Congratulations to Baskhuu Yondonperenlei and Mongolia.
In the first bronze medal contest Ziyang Xue (CHN) looked strong and well prepared but he couldn’t match the ne-waza skill of Ryoma Tanaka. It took two and a half minutes to get there but Tanaka found his way into an osae-komi that looked unstable but was anything but! The 20 seconds passed and Tanaka had the bronze medal. China just missed out on another medal, with Xue finishing in fifth place.
The second bronze medal of the category would either go to Shuai Zhang, another Chinese contender, or Channyeong Kim (KOR). Great movement from both judoka made it an exciting presentation but with less than a minute to go the dynamic changed dramatically. Kim launched Zhang with a very high uchi-mata which he only just managed to scramble enough to avoid the ippon. The waza-ari was still a huge mountain to climb, one he did not manage to overcome. The bronze medal was Kim’s.
Two fifth places for China in this category is hard to swallow but it has been a long time since the men’s team stepped into regular final block positions and here in Qingdao there is a real fervour around the team. The men are rising and it is great to see.
Final (-66 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-66 kg)
