The Asian Games champion won by wazari-awasette-ippon to take the honours in the men's under 60 kilogram category, overcoming Mongolia's Amartuvshin Dashdavaa.

Kazakhstan and Mongolia shared the bronze medals also as Askhat Telmanov and Kherlen Ganbold secured places on the bottom step of the podium.

Prior to the tatami action getting underway at the Cycle track "Saryarka", IJF education and coaching director Mohamed Meridja thanked the Kazakhstan Judo Federation for its hospitality and welcomed the athletes and team officials to the Kazakh capital.

"The Kazakhstan Judo Federation is growing very fast," said Meridja.

"The Kazakhstan athletes are achieving very good results in major events.

"This is very positive and encouraging.

"The International Judo Federation is very satisfied with this remarkable development.

"This is an inspiring platform for other nations.

"The capital city Astana will host next year the World Judo Championships.

"This is good evidence for the outstanding efforts Kazakhstan are making to promote judo worldwide."

Back on the tatami, Mongolia was the first nation to register gold after Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix bronze medallist Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh overcame Miami Grand Prix silver medallist Nathalia Brigida of Brazil in the women's under 48kg class.

Galbadrakh claimed her first IJF title by forcing her opponent to submit to a juji-gatame after some explosive work in ne-waza.

Italy's Valentina Moscatt and Turk Ebru Sahi emerged with the bronze medals after victories over Han Galimuga of China and Brazilian Gabriela Chibana respectively.

Christianne Legentil of Mauritius (blue) delivered her country's first ever medal at an IJF event by taking silver in the women's under 52kg final ©IJF



In the women's under 52kg category, Portugal's Joana Ramos defeated Christianne Legentil of Mauritius to take gold, but it was the 22-year-old Legentil who was shedding tears of joy as she secured her country's first ever medal at an IJF event.

"I can't believe it, this means so much to me," she said afterwards.

"I've pictured this moment so many times and it is very special for everyone in Mauritius who are hugely supportive of me.

"Next time I will try harder because I think I will only be happy with gold."

Brazil picked up another bronze in the form of Eleudis Valentim, while Israeli Gili Cohen also comes away from Astana with a medal.

Hungary's World Championships bronze medal winner Hedvig Karakas prevailed in the women's under 57kg final after locking up Austrian Sabrina Filzmoser with a sankaku-gatame for waza-ari.

Giulia Quintavalle of Italy and Great Britain's Nekoda Smythe Davis came out on top in their bronze medal clashes with Serbia's Jovana Rogic and Stefanie Tremblay of Canada, respectively.

In the only other men's category decided on day one, junior world champion Yuuki Hashiguchi of Japan won the first of what could be many titles at senior level as he overcame home favourite Zhansay Smagulov.

The 20-year-old went ahead with a waza-ari and doubled his lead to take the title by throwing with a morote seoi-nage.

He was joined on the podium by compatriot Ren Miyazaki, with German Sebastian Seidl also claiming bronze.

Tomorrow, the Astana Grand Prix continues with medals up for grabs in the women's under 63kg and under 70kg classes, with the men's under 73kg and under 81kg categories also decided.

Watch the latest action on Judo TV here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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