On day 6, Alice Bellandi broke the curse and became world champion for the first time, adding to her Olympic title won in Paris last summer. She was understandably emotional, as was her coach Antonio Ciano, who was also the coach of Assunta Scutto who won gold on day 1. He is having an incredible week!
At -100 kg the Olympic and world champion from 2024, Zelym Kotsoiev (AZE), didn’t quite mirror Bellandi’s result but he didn’t fall far short, standing on the podium just below Kanikovskiy (IJF) and Arai (JPN). Japan may also not have won a gold today but their place at the top of the table remains safe as they already had 6 golds among 11 medals in total, from the first 5 days. No other nation is coming close, although 20 countries have won medals so far and that is a huge celebration of the diversity of the judo family.
On day 7 the heavyweights will arrive at the Papp László Arena, the first contests commencing at midday, local time. Tune in to JudoTV to stay up to date with all results, replays and statistics throughout the day.