The country’s first title came in the women’s under 48 kilogram category, where Olympic champion Sarah Menezes beat Israel’s Shira Rishony in the final.

In the absence of reigning world champion Paul Pareto, who lost against Cuba’s Dayaris Mestre Alvarez earlier in the day, Menezes went into the showdown as firm favourite.

Both athletes were penalised with a first shido for passivity after 37 seconds, but it did not take long for the Brazilian to launch a beautiful drop-seoi-nage for a clear and perfect ippon.

Argentina’s Pareto bounced back from her defeat to claim a bronze medal at the expense of Cuba’s Melissa Hurtado Munoz, and she was joined on the third step of the podium by her conqueror Mestre Alvarez, who beat France’s Laetitia Payet in the second bronze medal contest.  

Brazil’s gold medal tally was doubled by Pan American Games silver medallist Eric Takabatake, whose opponent in the men’s under 60kg final, Turkey’s Bekir Ozlu, was unable to compete due to injury.

Another Turk, Ahmet Sahin Kaba, had to pull out of the weight category’s first bronze medal fight against Armenian Hovhannes Davtyan before Azerbaijan’s Orkhan Safarov got the better of Uzbekistan’s Sharafuddin Lutfillaev in the second.

Elsewhere on the first day of action, Germany’s Mareen Kraeh justified her top seed status by winning gold in the women’s under 52kg category.

In the final, the 2013 world bronze medallist was opposed to 38-year-old Belgian veteran Ilse Heylen, who was rapidly thrown for waza-ari followed by an immobilisation for ippon.

Italy’s Odette Giuffrida and Mongolia’s Tsolmon Adiyasambuu claimed the bronze medals to the detriment of Cuba’s Gretel Romero and Portugal’s Joana Ramos respectively.

Like Kraeh, the United States’ Marti Malloy showed why she was a top seed with success in the women’s under 57kg category.

Having defeated the 2013 world champion Rafaela Silva of Brazil in the semi-finals, Malloy was opposed to world number nine and Baku 2015 European Games silver medallist Hedvig Karakas of Hungary in the gold medal match.

During the four minutes of regular time, both champions perfectly neutralised each other and were not capable of scoring.

The same scenario occurred during the golden score as the referee had to wait more than three minutes to give a first shido to Karakas, grating victory to Malloy.

Kosovo’s Nora Gjakova, competing under the IJF flag, beat Germany’s Viola Waechter in the first bronze medal fight, after which home favourite Silva overcame Canada’s Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard.

The last final of the day, in the men’s under 66kg category, saw top seed Loïc Korval of France lose out to Russia’s Kamal Khan-Magomedov, gold medallist at Baku 2015.

After two minutes, Korval launched a first strong o-soto-gari, which was immediately countered by Khan-Magomedov but for no score.

Multiplying the small mistakes, Khan-Magomedov was penalised twice to give a small advantage to his opponent but then scored a first yuko with a sutemi-waza technique.

Korval was pushing to be able to score as well and although he finally did, it was immediately after the end of the fight with the final gong saving Khan-Magomedov. 

Italy’s Elio Verde was the first bronze medallist, beating Brazil’s Charles Chibana before Georgia’s Vazha Margvelashvili saw off Germany’s Sebastian Seidl to become the second.

Action in Havana is due to continue tomorrow with the women’s under 63kg and under 70kg categories and men’s under 73kg and under 81kg classes.

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