Georgia’s Varlam Liparteliani claimed the third continental crown of his career after winning the men’s under 90 kilograms title on the final day of action at the European Judo Championships in Kazan ©Getty Images

Georgia’s Varlam Liparteliani claimed the third continental title of his career after winning the men’s under 90 kilograms crown on the final day of action at the European Judo Championships in Kazan.

The 27-year-old defeated Hungary’s Krisztian Toth in the final at the Tatneft Arena, finishing the match in style with a superb makikomi technique.

He had earlier knocked out Ukraine’s Quedjau Nhabali in the quarter-finals and Poland’s Piotr Kuczera in the penultimate round on his way to winning a European medal for the eighth consecutive year.

Kuczera became the first Polish judoka to win a European medal in the under 90kg category after beating Serbia’s Aleksandar Kukolj to take bronze.

The man who he defeated in the quarter-finals, Sweden’s Marcus Nyman, won the other bronze medal with injured Frenchman Alexandre Iddir unable to compete.

France were the biggest winners today with Teddy Riner and Audrey Tcheumeo winning the men’s over 100kg and women’s under 78kg titles respectively.

Having not competed at last year’s European Championships in Baku, Riner returned to regain the title he won in 2014 and preserve his unbeaten record across all competitions that stretches back as far as 2010. 

The Olympic champion saw off the challenge of Israel’s Or Sasson to secure a fifth European crown as Georgia’s Levani Matiashvili and Romania’s Daniel Natea beat Ukraine’s Oleksandr Gordiienko and Hungary’s Barna Bor to the bronze medals.

France's Teddy Riner won his fifth European title
France's Teddy Riner won his fifth European title ©Getty Images

As for London 2012 bronze medallist Tcheumeo, she overcame The Netherlands’ Guusje Steenhuis to win the her second European title and first since 2011 when she triumphed in Istanbul. 

Last year’s silver medallist Luise Malzahn of Germany had to settle for third place on this occasion, beating Slovenia’s Anamari Velensek to a bronze medal.

She was joined on the third step of the podium by Natalie Powell, who came out on top in an all-British encounter against Gemma Gibbons.

The Netherlands’ Henk Grol successfully defended his men’s under 100kg title after getting the better of Belgium's Toma Nikiforov in the final.

The two-time Olympic bronze medallist's compatriot Michael Korrel beat Austria’s Christoph Kronberger to win bronze, while Estonia’s Grigori Minaskin was the other third-place finisher at the expense of Azerbaijan’s Elmar Gasimov.

The last women's gold medal was won by Turkey’s Kayra Sayit, who beat Ukraine’s Svitlana Iaromka in the over 78kg final.

Germany’s Jasmin Kuelbs and Turkey’s Belkis Zehra Kaya were the bronze medallists as Lithuania’s Santa Pakenyte and Germany’s Carolin Weiss just missed out on the podium.

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