Karen Galstian prevails after bye in the U73kg final

The second category of the day at the 2025 Tashkent Grand Slam was dynamic from the earliest contests and a capacity crowd had enjoyed every minute of it. Danil Lavrentev (IJF) was due to face Karen Galstian (IJF for the gold medal of the category but Lavrentev was unable to compete and so Galstian was awarded the medal, his first grand slam gold.

The first medal contest was between Maxime Gobert (FRA) and Muhiddin Asadulloev (TJK) and it was the latter who led the pace. He created entries for his uchi-mata over and over again with only defence from Gobert. Clearly frustrated, the Frenchman chose to work more in ne-waza but it wasn’t enough to even things up and he found himself down by two penalties to one as the bell approached.
In the dying seconds of normal time, after a short break to replace a bandage, Asadalloev added a new tactic, dropping underneath Gobert with a very low seoi-otoshi. Gobert attempted to counter it but he could feel the third penalty being considered. In golden score he had no option but to open up and attack more and this led to his eventual downfall. He tried his own uchi-mata but it was countered by the Tajik judoka, a warning to Gobert that he had all angles covered.
There was no score but it was close. Gobert made the decision to continue with the more positive style and it paid off. He applied a classic combination, uchi-mata to o-uchi-gari, and it caught Asadulloev, placing him just on his hip. The video review showed a yuko score could be given and so Gobert turned the tide and left the arena with his medal.
In an all Uzbek second bronze medal contest, Shakhram Ahadov and Obidkhon Nomonov faced each other for the honour of raising the home flag above the podium. Nomonov was perhaps the more concerned of the two, breaking the grips off in the first exchange to earn himself a very early shido. It would prove fatal as Ahadov continued to dominate the kumi-kata, eventually winning the medal by 3 penalties to one.