In the absence of his main rival, Timur Arbuzov (RUS), Tato Grigalashvili (GEO) had a clear shot for his fourth World title.
He wasn’t able to secure an ippon in his first match, against Gadzhimurad Omarov (UAE) but he did throw him with an array of ashiwaza, first kouchi-gari for yuko, then de-ashi-barai for yuko, hen kouchi-gari again for waza-ari. This match showed how subtle Grigalashvili can be.
His next match, against Aurelien Bonferroni (SUI), saw Grigalashvili do the big throws again. First, it was sumi-gaeshi for waza-ari and then drop sode for ippon.
Grigalashvili’s next two matches, against Nace Herkovic (SLO) and Mihajlo Simin (SRB) respectively, saw him being stretched into Golden Score and winning only through penalties.
This didn’t bode so well for his final match, against an on-form Zelim Tckaev (AZE) who had the full support of the home crowd. Their match went deep into Golden Score and it was nearly 10 minutes into the match when the decisive throw happened. Tckaev, who had been attacking with uchimata throughout the match, came in with a sloppy uchimata which Grigalashvili countered for waza-ari. And with that, he got his fourth World gold medal.
