Belgium's Sami Chouchi won the under-81kg title in Tbilisi ©Marina Mayorova/IJF

Belgium's Sami Chouchi produced a superb display to win under-81 kilograms gold at the International Judo Federation (IJF) Grand Slam in Tbilisi as attention turned to the action following a bout of positive COVID-19 cases at the event.

Chouchi beat surprise finalist Shamil Borchashvili to clinch his second IJF World Tour title.

The Belgian European silver medallist had survived a scare early on in his semi-final against Tato Grigalashvili as the Georgian's ippon was downgraded to waza-ari on video review.

Chouchi recovered and caught the European and World Masters champion by surprise with a shime-waza to secure a surprise win.

Borchashvili had also caused an upset in his semi-final after he overcame Canada's world and Olympic medallist Antoine Valois-Fortier of Canada.

Azerbaijan's Murad Fatiyev and Grigalashvili were forced to settle for the bronze medals in the division.

Tsend-Ochiryn Tsogtbaatar of Mongolia sealed his second consecutive Grand Slam gold in the under-73kg category.

Tsend-Ochiryn Tsogtbaatar of Mongolia claimed his second straight Grand Slam title in the under-73kg division ©Marina Mayorova/IJF
Tsend-Ochiryn Tsogtbaatar of Mongolia claimed his second straight Grand Slam title in the under-73kg division ©Marina Mayorova/IJF

Tsogtbaatar, who arrived in the Georgian capital having topped the podium in Tashkent earlier this month, defeated Arthur Margelidon of Canada in the final to continue his superb run of recent form.

Both available bronze medals were claimed by Georgian judoka, Aleko Mamiashvili and Lasha Shavdatuashvili.

Brazil's Maria Portela took the women's under-70kg honours to earn the 10th Grand Slam medal of her career.

Portela, a double Pan American Games medallist, overcame the challenge posed by Russian Madina Taimazova, a finalist at the World Masters in Doha, in the final.

Uzbekistan's Gulnoza Matniyazova and Belgium's Gabriella Willems were the recipients of the bronze medals.

Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard justified her status as the pre-event favourite in the women's under-63kg by claiming gold, which proved to kick-start a successful day for her country.

Beauchemin-Pinard ousted China's Yang Junxia, who had not appeared on an international podium since her bronze medal in 2019 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, in the final to clinch the title.

Geke van der Berg of The Netherlands and Daria Davydova of Russia did enough for bronze.

Germany and France both withdrew from the Grand Slam because of COVID-19 concerns and there have been several positive coronavirus tests during the event in the Georgian capital.

Action is scheduled to conclude tomorrow.