It was the two-time International Judo Federation (IJF) World Masters medallist’s first European crown and one of the biggest titles of his career.

Hungary’s Krisztián Tóth defeated Mihael Zgank of Turkey and Mikhail Igolnikov of Russia beat Nemanja Majdov of Serbia to win the bronze medals.

Toma Nikiforov claimed his second European title and first since 2018 with victory over Georgia’s Varlam Liparteliani in the under-100kg category.

Bronze medals were won by France’s Alexandre Iddir and Zelym Kotsoiev of Azerbaijan after seeing off Ilia Sulamanidze of Georgia and Niiaz Iliasov of Russia respectively.

It was third time lucky for Inal Tasoev as he claimed gold in the over-100kg division after bagging silver at the two previous European Championships.

The Russian triumphed against Henk Grol of The Netherlands in the final.

The bronze medal matches saw Georgian Guram Tushishvili overcome Roy Meyer of The Netherlands and Lukáš Krpálek of the Czech Republic defeat Israel’s Or Sasson.

In the women’s event, the final two gold medals were captured by Poland’s Beata Pacut and Turkey’s Kayra Sayit.

Pacut beat Guusje Steenhuis to clinch top spot in the under-75kg class, while France’s Fanny Posvite and Austrian Bernadette Graf secured podium places after beating Kosovo’s Loriana Kuka and France's Audrey Tcheumeo respectively.

Sayit, who previously represented France, collected her second European gold medal and first for Turkey after producing an ippon to beat Léa Fontaine in the women’s under-78kg final.

Maryna Slutskaya of Belarus swept aside Lithuania’s Sandra Jablonskyte to earn bronze, while Portugal’s Rochele Nunes won the same colour medal after defeating Ukraine’s Yelyzaveta.

Kosovo topped the medal table with two golds and one bronze, while Turkey finished second courtesy of a pair of golds.

France had to settle for third place with eight medals including one gold, three silvers and four bronzes.