-66kg: Nurali Emomali Scores for Tajikistan to Announce the Upcoming Grand Prix in the Country

Much to the delight of the crowd, it was the Uzbek Sardor Nurillaev, who joined Emomali in the final, after sending Shahboz Saidoburorov (TJK), Matteo Piras (ITA) and Willian Lima (BRA) to the locker room.

The public raised their voices as the two finalists entered the arena. The first to action was Nurillaev with an uchi-mata for no score and despite the first shido apiece given, we witnessed a very open match. As the rhythm slowed down slightly, Emomali was penalised with a second shido. He could not wait any more for the counter and had to attack but it was actually Nurillaev who was close to scoring with a counter attack. As normal time was getter close to the end, in a long ne-waza sequence, Nurillaev, encouraged by the public, was so close to arm-locking his opponent but the latter resisted. In golden score, it was Emomali's turn to be close to applying a shime-waza. What a match! Both competitors had no choice but to keep attacking and counter-attacking. Eventually as Sardor Nurillaev tried to throw with ura-nage to counter an uchi-mata, Emomali had the idea to leave his foot inside with a ko-uchi-gari and score ippon. Both athletes could be congratulated but the gold went to Nurali Emomali of Tajikistan.

Khyar (FRA) still had a chance to get on the podium. For this he faced Willian Lima (BRA) in the first match for a bronze medal. Despite having two big throwers on the tatami, normal time was being spent rapidly, with two shido apiece. The third shido was awarded to Lima during golden score as he clearly walked out of the competition area. A bronze medal and a save after having been top seed of the tournament for Walide Khyar.

France had the possibility of placing another athlete on the podium thanks to Maxime Gobert (FRA), opposed to Mukhriddin Tilovov (UZB) but Gobert could not imitate his teammate and climb on the podium as he was penalised three times, offering the bronze medal to Mukhriddin Tilovov.