Ryuju Nagayama Wins his 12th Grand Slam Gold Medal

There was a great risk that the Japanese judoka would dominate the category U60kg and this was actually the case, since the two Japanese representatives reached the final. The first of them was Ryuju Nagayama, bronze medallist in Paris last summer, who qualified at the expense of Dilshot Khalmatov (UKR) whose last significant result was a bronze medal at the Linz Grand Prix in 2024.

The second Japanese judoka was Taiki Nakamura, junior world champion in 2022 and winner of the Tokyo Grand Slam at the end of 2024. It was Jorre Verstraeten (BEL) who was the victim of Nakamura's ground work, an ippon score via immobilisation in the semi-final.
When two judoka from the same country meet, you can always expect close fights, in which neither wants to give anything away. It is sometimes a question of supremacy within the national team but it is above all because the judoka know each other by heart. Between Nagayama and Nakamura, however, the contest quickly became spectacular. Nagayama scored first with a magnificent and lightning-fast ashi-waza for a first waza-ari. He was close to doubling the score a few seconds later with an uchi-mata dodge but as skillful as a cat, Nakamura turned on to his stomach. The next attack was the right one for Nagayama who this time counter-attacked his opponent to win his 12th gold medal in a grand slam.
The host country offered itself two medal possibilities too with the qualification of Balabay Aghayev and Ahmad Yusifov for the bronze medal contests. The first opposed Jorre Verstraeten (BEL), the second was against Dilshot Khalmatov (UKR).
Unfortunately for the home crowd, Balabay Aghayev was heavily defeated by Verstraeten who executed a perfectly timed kata-guruma for ippon, which silenced the public, before they applauded both judoka. 
Things were tighter in the second bronze medal contest, each judoka entering golden score with one shido. They were quickly transformed into two shido apiece. As the third penalty was given to Dilshot Khalmatov, the public could explode with joy, Ahmad Yusifov winning the first bronze medal for the host country.