In the second half of the draw, it was his compatriot Vugar Talibov (AZE), a Youth Olympic winner in 2018, who made a strong impression, giving Azerbaijan a final that was 100% made in Baku.
In the final, half way through the allotted time, Talibov was already penalised twice for false attacks, leaving him no other choice than to score, but it was actually Eljan Hajiyev who scored ippon. Starting with an o-soto-gari attempt that was countered by Talibov, Hajiyev maintained control over his opponent's back to drive him to the floor.
Tajikistan had another chance of a medal thanks to Shodmon Rizoev (TJK), who qualified for the first bronze medal contest against Egor Adam Kopecky (CZE). For this first contest of today's final block, the atmosphere was already crazy. Before even half of the fight was over, Rizoev scored a first waza-ari after he countered Kopecky's koshi-waza with his own koshi-waza technique. But then everything went the other way when Kopecky scored and immediately pinned his opponent for ippon. This is the first medal at a grand slam for Kopecky.
Eldar Allakhverdiev (IJF) and Egor Andoni (IJF) met to fight for the second bronze medal. It took the golden score period to separate the two judoka, when Egor Andoni performed a fast seoi-otoshi to score ippon and take his first bronze medal in a grand slam.
Final (-90 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-90 kg)
