Lasha Giunashvili highlights his career with Tbilisi gold against Davaadorj

The last final of the men’s categories opposed the third Georgian athlete of the day to fight for gold as Georgian Lasha Giunashvili faced Tumurkhuleg Davaadorj of Mongolia after having defeated Charles Chibana (BRA) in first the semi-final. On his side of the draw, Davaadorj eliminated Yakub Shamilov (RUS) to face the Georgian.

In the final, after 45 seconds, Davaadorj was penalised a first time for blocking his opponent, who was warmly supported by his home public. Both athletes engaged a battle of strong men, the Mongol looking a bit tougher than Giunashvili, which was confirmed a little later, when the Georgian literally entered into a wall that countered his attack for waza-ari. With only a few seconds left on the clock, Davaadorj was controlling the end of the final but maybe a bit too much. Penalised two more times, the last a few seconds before the final gong, the Mongol could be angry at himself. With this unexpected victory, the public could exult like in the ‘good old times’.

Sergiu Oleinic (POR) and Yakub Shamilov (RUS) were opposed in the first bronze medal contest. Halfway to the end, Shamilov possessed a strong lead with a waza-ari scored earlier during the match with a sumi-otoshi. Despite all his efforts to put pressure on Shamilov, Oleinic couldn’t score and even if the Russian was penalised two times for passivity, his early waza-ari offered him the bronze medal.

Slovak Matej Poliak faced Brazilian Charles Chibana (BRA) for the second spot on the lower step of the podium in this last men’s category for the day. If the Brazilian was seeking of the third victory on the occasion of the World Judo Tour event here in Tbilisi (2 Grand Slam gold in Tyumen 2014 - Moscow 2013), he had to concede the victory to Giunashvili in the semi-final. Would his experience at that level be enough against Poliak who so far had only a European cup medal to his prize list? The answer came quick as it took a little more one minute for the Brazilian to score a superb ippon with a koshi-waza technique that propelled Poliak flat on his back.

"The return of Georgii Zantaraia led into hansokumake for the Ukraine fighter after the two heads clashed in a fight, at first sight not a deliberate clash, so a hansokumake seems a harsh penalty" according to JudoInside.