He defeated Brazilian Michel Augusto in the final with a mid-fight waza-ari. Azerbaijan's Turan Bayramov defeated Gamzat Zairbekov (AIN) in the bronze medal bout. The other bronze medal in the weight category went to Taipei's Yung Wei Yang who defeated Samy Youssry (Egypt). 

Another runner-up at the last World Championships, Diyora Keldiyorova, won the competition in the women's -52 kg category. The Uzbek needed just 18 seconds to score an ippon against Hungary's Reka Pupp. 

The bronze medal bout between Seyun Jang (Korea) and Glafira Borisova (AIN) was even shorter. 10 seconds into the bout Borisova scored an ippon to win the bronze medal. The other bronze went to Mascha Bellhaus from Germany who defeated another Korean, Yerin Jung.

Two young judokas from Japan have reached the final in the women's -48 kg category. Kano Miyaki, 18, and 21-year-old Hikari Yoshioka have already won cadet and junior world championships, and both were unbeaten in Portugal until the final, which the younger Miyaki won with a waza-ari. Abiba Abuzhakynova of Kazakhstan and Narantsetseg Ganbaatar of Mongolia took the bronze medals.

Asian dominance continued in the women's -57 kg category, where Mimi Huh of Korea took gold. She defeated Daria Kurbonmamadova (AIN). Bronze medals went to Germany's Seija Ballhaus and Japan's Ayami Takano.

2021 World champion Yago Abuladze (AIN) was the only non-Asian to win gold on day one. He defeated Azerbaijan's Yashar Najafov by a golden point in the final. Kamran Suleymanov of Azerbaijan and Shinsei Hattori of Japan won their bouts for third place.