The 2014 World Championships silver medallist, who is expected to be one of the top seeds for the Olympic competition in the Brazilian city, produced a powerful display on his way to a dominant victory over Mihael Zgank of Slovenia in the final.

The two bronze medals on offer in the category were claimed by Celio Dias of Portugal and European Games champion Kirill Denisov of Russia as they overcame Israeli judoka Li Kochman and Max Stewart of Britain respectively.

Olympic champion Kayla Harrison was another athlete who appears in excellent form ahead of Rio 2016, where she will bid to defend her title, as she reigned supreme in the women's under 78kg event, beating Anamari Velensek of Slovenia in the gold medal bout.

The success for the American gave her a third consecutive major crown and saw her defend the IJF Budapest Grand Prix title she won in 2015.

Home judoka Abigel Joo was the recipient of the first bronze medal as she proved too strong for Klara Apotekar of Slovenia, while Karen Stevenson of The Netherlands also ended on the podium, dispatching French opponent Sama Hawa Camara by ippon after just 66 seconds.

Elvismar Rodriguez wrote her name in the history books by clinching Venezuela's first-ever Grand Prix gold as she overcame Germany's Laura Vargas Koch in the final of the women's under 70kg division.

Gulnoza Matniyazova of Uzbekistan and Maria Perez ousted Japan's Karen Nunira and Sanne Van Dijke of The Netherlands to claim the two bronze medals in the weight class.

Carolin Weiss of Germany earned her maiden Grand Prix gold medal as she topped the podium in the women's over 78kg category, emerging victorious on shido penalties in a tense final against Ma Sisi of China.

Iryna Kindzerska of the Ukraine and world champion Yu Song of China did enough for bronze as they got the better of Lithuania's Santa Pakenyte and Ukrainian Yelyzaveta Kalanina in their respective clashes.

Olympic bronze medallist Ivan Nifontov ended his wait for a Grand Prix title as he took the men's under 81kg honours by beating Germany's Sven Maresch in a close-knit battle between the two top seeds.

Attila Ungvari gave the home crowd another medal to cheer, sealing one of the two bronze on offer by getting opponent Bojan Dosen of Serbia to submit with a shime-waza move, while the other went to Japan's Yasuhiro Ebi thanks to his win against Moldovan Nicon Zaborosciuc.

There was an exciting finish to the men's under 100kg competition as Michael Korrel of The Netherlands triumphed on golden score with a well-executed waza-ari in his final with Uzbekistan's Soyib Kurbonov.

Philip Awiti-Alcaraz bagged a medal for Britain, earning bronze by ousting Azerbaijan's Elkhan Mammadov.

He was joined on the podium by Anton Savytskiy of the Ukraine, who shocked Rio-bound German judoka Karl-Richard Frey.

Ukraine's Stanislav Bondarenko was another judoka to taste Grand Prix success for the first time, ending his tournament in golden fashion with victory over Katsuma Ueda of Japan in the final of the over 100kg division.

Nabil Zalagh of France pinned Ecuador's Freddy Figueroa in the opening bronze medal fight, while top seed Andre Breitbarth of Germany shrugged off the disappointment of not making the gold medal bout by overcoming Serbia's Zarko Culum.

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