Vanlioglu had delighted the crowd at the Yaşar Doğu Sports Arena throughout the day as he won his opening five fights, including a semi-final against Dutch top seed Dex Elmont, to set up a final against Azerbaijan's Rustam Orujov, a winner in last week's Grand Prix in Tblisi, where he had beaten Georgia's Olympic champion Lasha Shavdatuashvili. 

Their bout needed to be resolved by golden score after the two men were tied at the end of the regulation time, with both Vanlioglu and Orujov having accrued three penalties apiece.

But the fight did not last much longer as Orujov stunned Vanlioglu and the home crowd with an ippon 27 seconds into the additional period to secure the gold, while the United Arab Emirates Victor Scvortov and The Netherlands Elmont won their bronze medal matches.

"Everything went well until the final where I had an extra pressure due to the fact that I was against a Turkish athlete, but that didn't bother me at all," Orujov said after his triumph.

"It's only the beginning of the season but that is a very good result."

France's Loic Pietri came through a packed field to win the men's under 81kg event ©IJF



The men's under 81kg event boosted 58 athletes, the largest field in a division at the Grand Prix, so it was no surprise that the final between the UAE's Sergiu Toma and France's Loic Pietri saw both judokas exhausted and struggling to make a decisive move.

A golden score was required to end the stalemate and Pietri, the 2013 world champion, eventually took the contest with an ippon, while Georgia's Ushangi Margiani and Saeid Mollaei of Iran earned bronze medals.

Israel's Yuri Alvear claimed a major scalp in the women's under 70kg event, as the formerly Dutch judoka defeated Colombia's world champion Yuri Alvear in the final to clinch gold, while Britain's Sally Conway and Mongolia's Naranjargal Send Ayush earned bronze medals.

"I am super happy tonight, because I changed nationality and I am now competing for Israel, so I lost all my points," Alvear said.

"With this victory, I am back on the world ranking list and I qualified for the European Games."

Top seed Anicka Van Emden won gold for The Netherlands in the women's under 63kg ©IJF



Top seed Anicka Van Emden was victorious in the women's under 63kg division after the Dutchwoman controlled the final against Austria's Hilde Drexler, scoring early on in their contest with a yuko before withstanding Drexler's attacks to take the title.

Van Emden's compatriot Juul Franssen and Britain's Alice Schlesinger complete the podium after overcoming Britain's Gemma Howell and Russia's Ekaterina Valkova respectively in their bronze medal matches.

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