The individual events came to a close with the men's and women's lightweight and open categories, while the first final of the day - the women's -48 kilogram category - saw hosts Russia claim their second gold medal of the overall competition as Alesia Kuznetcova overcame France's Scarlett Gabrielli.

Some quality groundwork from the 21-year-old home athlete ensured the gold medal was hers to the delight of the TatNeft Arena crowd.

Ukrainian Maryna Cherniak and Cuba's Dayaris Rosa Mestre Alvarez won the bronze medal match-ups.

Idalys Ortiz Bocourt (blue) defeated Rochele Nunes to gain revenge for earlier defeat to the same opponent in the women's -78kg Revenge was in the air in the women's open category as Brazil's Rochele Nunes and Idalys Ortiz Bocourt squared up in a repeat of the +78kg final earlier in the week.

Nunes was victorious on that occasion but this time she had to settle for the silver medal.

London 2012 Olympic champion Ortiz Bocourt prevailed on penalties as Nunes was penalised for passivity by the judges.

Two yukos by Ukraine's Yelyzaveta Kalanina saw her claim bronze against Clarissa Gabriele Taube from Germany while Japan's Manami Inoue secured the other bronze.

Her compatriot Shinji Kido prevailed in the men's -60kg final to claim Japan's third judo gold medal of the Games.

Kido's victory came at the expense of home favourite and London 2012 gold medallist Arsen Galstyan following an ippon in the final few seconds of the contest.

Czech Pavel Petříkov defeated Switzerland's Michael Iten in a tightly contested bronze medal match and the other bronze went to Kim Won Jin of South Korea following the disqualification of his Mongolian opponent Amartuvshin Dashdavaa for accruing too many penalties.


The title of best judo performer at these Games must go to Lukáš Krpálek.

Following his victory in the men's -100kg on the first day of competition, the Czech European champion emerged victorious in the final of the men's open category, defeating Japan's Masaru Momose to claim a second title at Kazan 2013.

In the bronze medal contests, Brazil's David Silva and South Korea's Kim Sung Min overcame Sherali Juraev from Uzbekistan and Ukraine's Anton Rudnyk.


At the end of four days of intense judo competition at the 10,000 capacity TatNeft Arena, athletes from 19 nations have so far claimed medals with South Korea out in front with four golds, followed by Japan with three, Russia, Brazil and the Czech Republic with two, and France, Cuba and Hungary with one.

Photos: © IJF media by Nicolas Messner

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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