Fletcher made the decisive move 47 seconds after his contest at the El Menzah Sports Hall against Russia’s Ramazan Malsuigenov had moved into golden score territory.

On the edge of the competition area, the Irish competitor was able to score with a powerful o-uchi-gari for waza-ari to earn his first Grand Prix gold.

Bronze medals in this category went to Kazakhstan’s Viktor Demyanenko, victor over African champion Lyes Bouyacoub of Algeria, and Leonardo Goncalves of Brazil, who achieved ippon against Otto Imala of Switzerland.

But perhaps the most dramatic moment of the day occurred in the men’s under 90kg final when Hungary’s 2014 world silver medallist and top seed Krisztián Tóth was defeated in the first attack by Kazakhstan’s second seed Islam Bozbayev, who applied an irresistible tai-otoshi for a perfect ippon.

The first bronze medal match in this category produced another upset as David Klammert of the Czech Republic won his first Grand Prix medal with a perfect ippon against the 2014 world junior champion Rafael Macedo of Brazil.

The second bronze match went to form as Noel Van T End of The Netherlands won his eighth Grand Prix medal by defeating Britain’s Frazer Chamberlain.

The home crowd’s high expectations for Tunisia’s 2013 World Championship bronze medallist Faicel Jaballah in the men’s over 100kg category came to naught as he was prematurely eliminated by Kazuyo Sato of Japan.

Oleksandr Gordiienko of Ukraine claimed the gold medal with an opportunistic waza-ari against Iran’s Javad Mahjoub with just over 30 seconds remaining.

Both bronze medals went to Russians as 2016 European junior champion Ruslan Shakhbazov defeated Romania’s Vladut Simionescu and Tamerlan Bashaev overcame Jaballah’s conquerer, Sato.

But if Jaballah’s performance proved disappointing, there was consolation for home supporters in that of Nihel Cheikh Rouhou, who caused an uproar as she earned a decisive waza-ari against Slovenia’s Anamari Velensek with 20 seconds remaining to take bronze in the over 78kg category.

Rouhou, who thought better of her announced retirement Rio 2016, thus earned her seventh medal in a Grand Prix event.

The gold medal went to Maryna Slutskaya of Belarus, who defeated Rouhou’s victor, Beatriz Souza of Brazil.

The other bronze medal was won by Ukraine’s Galyna Tarasova, who defeated Anzhela Gasparian of Russia.

Japan’s Mao Izumi overwhelmed Karen Stevenson of The Netherlands to win gold in the under 78kg category.

Chloe Dollin of France won her first Grand Prix medal with victory over Russia’s Niurguiana Nikiforova in her bronze medal match, while the other bronze went to Slovenia’s Klara Apotekar, who defeated home judoka Sarra Mougoui.

After three intense days of competition, a total of 24 countries won medals and a record of 12 nations won gold in the 14 weight categories.

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