The 2013 world champion will be one of her country’s major gold medal hopes at Rio 2016, having displayed her podium potential by competing in bronze medals bouts at the Havana and Düsseldorf Grand Prix events, winning one and losing the other.

The 23-year-old improved on both performances in Tbilisi, as she won her opening three contests with ippons to set up a gold medal bout against Kosovo’s Nora Gjakova, competing under the IJF flag because Georgia does not recognise his country, which will be making its Olympic debut at Rio 2016. 

Silva sealed the gold medal in style by using the flying juji-gatame technique to earn a victory by ippon, with 90 seconds of their encounter remaining.

France’s Automne Pavia was forced onto the attack in the first bronze medal tie having received three shido penalties but it played into Miryam Roper’s hands as the German countered to earn an ippon win.

Hungary’s Hedvig Karakas secured the final place on the podium after achieving ippon in an additional period against Serbia’s Jovana Rogic after their contest having initially ended scoreless.

The under 52kg women’s final was decided in the same manner with Italy’s Odette Giuffrida holding her nerve in a golden point period against Israel’s Gili Cohen, with a seoi-nage shoulder throw proving the difference at the end of a close bout.

A yuko was enough for Brazil’s Erika Miranda to defeat Turkmenistan’s Gulbadam Babamuratova in the first bronze medal contest.

Home favourite Mariam Janashvili appeared on course to replicate the feat in her bout with South Korea’s Kim Mi-Ri only for Georgian to be thrown for a waza-ari in the closing seconds to miss out on a podium place.

The under 48kg event ended with a convincing victory for Romania’s Monica Ungureanu, as she scored with three yukos of open up a comfortable advantage over Guinea-Bissau’s Taciana Lima-Balde.

Ungureanu underlined her dominance by securing an ippon in the final seconds to seal the gold medal.

Paris Grand Slam winner Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh defeated Turkey’s Ebru Sahin with an ippon in the first bronze medal contest.

The Kazakh judoka was joined on the podium by Ukraine’s Maryna Cherniak, who did not need to contest her tie due to Russia’s Irina Dolgova being forced to withdraw after picking up an injury.

The Georgian crowd were lifted by local judoka Vazha Margvelashvili claiming his first IJF gold medal in the men’s under 66kg division.

Four straight ippon wins saw Margvelashvili advance to the final, where a waza-ari was enough to see the Georgian past Italy’s Fabio Basile.

Kazakhstan’s Zhansay Smagulov defeated Israel’s Tal Flicker with an ippon to win the first minor medal, but his team-mate Yeldos Zhumakanov fell to a waza-ari defeat to Turkey’s Sinan Sandal.

The final title of the day was claimed by Uzbekistan’s Diyorbek Urozboev, with two waza-ari’s seeing him past Mongolia’s Dashdavaa Amartuvshin in the under 60kg men’s final.

Amartuvshin’s team-mate Boldbaatar Ganbat, the world champion in 2014, won a bronze medal courtesy of an ippon victory over Kyrgyzstan’s Otar Bestaev.

Georgia’s Amiran Papinashvili forced Turkey’s Bekir Ozlu to submit to secure the final podium spot.

Competition is due continue tomorrow with the women’s under 63 and 70kg events, as well as the men’s under 73 and 81kg divisions.

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