Unfortunately for Casse, his dreams of regaining the world title were cut short in round three by 20-year-old Timur Arbuzov (AIN). Arbuzov first appeared on the IJF World Judo Tour in Ulaanbaatar in 2023 but made his first mark this year at the Paris Grand Slam, taking bronze, before storming to gold at the Tbilisi Grand Slam the following month. Here in Abu Dhabi, he used his prodigious agility and technical prowess in both the standing and groundwork phases to battle through to the final.
Against Abdelrahman Mohamed (EGY) in round one, Arbuzov passed the legs of his opponent to pin him using yoko-shiho-gatame for ippon in the second minute of the contest. Faced with Achraf Moutii (MAR) in round two, a driving ko-uchi-gari which scored waza-ari, again in the second minute, was enough to see him through.
His round three contest with Casse was an enthralling encounter, featuring several strong ne-waza sequences from the Individual Neutral Athlete and several strong tachi-waza attacks from both. But in attempting to counter Arbuzov’s throwing attempts, Casse thrice put his hand below his opponent’s belt, resulting in three penalties and disqualification after six minutes of fight time.
Arbuzov progressed to the quarter-final, where he faced 8-time grand slam medallist Sharofiddin Boltaboev (UZB). He secured a hold down in the first 30 seconds of the contest, but the Uzbek athlete managed to escape after 9 seconds. Nevertheless, another ko-uchi-gari scored him a waza-ari after three minutes, which was sufficient to put him through to the semi-final.
Waiting for him there was Dushanbe Grand Slam 2024 bronze medallist Dimitri Gochilaidze (GEO), who had impressed all day by taking out Latisev (MDA), Sulca (ROU), Esposito (ITA) and Fasching (AUT) in his earlier contests. Though Arbuzov was forced into several acrobatic escapes by the Georgian, his superior ne-waza skills eventually decided the contest. He turned his opponent over, then expertly freed his entangled leg and pinned him for ippon in the third minute, moving into his first senior world final at the first attempt.
Grigalashvili arguably had an even tougher draw but he held up his end of the bargain. He started his day in round two against Qazaqstan Barysy Grand Slam silver medallist from just over a week ago, Timo Cavelius (GER). Despite a good effort from the German, the Georgian scored waza-ari using tai-otoshi in the third minute of the contest and then a third and final shido for the German ended the bout.
In round three he came up against Vedat Albayrak (TUR) who had previously defeated him in the final of the 2023 European Championships. With both athletes being such powerful throwers, it was an extremely close contest, but Grigalashvili eventually took a tactical victory over his Turkish opponent after one minute of golden score.
The Georgian’s quarter-final opponent would be former junior world champion Somon Makhmadbekov (TJK), and he was once again made to work hard for the victory, throwing with o-uchi-gari and scoring waza-ari 30 seconds into golden score.
In the semi-final, he took on Joonhwan Lee (KOR), another athlete who had defeated him in the past, and who, in typical fashion, had thrown all of Fernando (POR), Oino (JPN) and Karapetyan (AIN) in the earlier rounds. It was another tightly-contested match-up, but Grigalashvili came up with the goods again with just 25 seconds left on the clock. He countered a low seoi-nage attempt from the Korean using uki-otoshi to score waza-ari and ran out the remaining contest time on the ground. With that, he made it to his fourth world final in a row, at the age of just 24.
The final more than lived up to those from recent years. Both judoka engaged all their knowledge and creativity in search of a way through the other’s defences, creating several frantic attacking exchanges but the action was halted twice for Grigalashvili to receive treatment after a clash of heads early in the contest.
Returning to the tatami for the second time and with just 10 seconds left on the clock, the Georgian mustered all of his strength to throw Arbuzov with ura-nage and score a decisive waza-ari. With that, Grigalashvili took his third world championship gold in a row and, in doing so, became the first ever Georgian judoka to win three world titles. At just 24 years of age, he certainly isn’t done yet either!
After defeating Fasching in their repechage contest, Boltaboev took on Lee for the first bronze medal. Lee managed the contest diligently, preventing Boltaboev from closing the distance and launching his attacks. The Korean threw his opponent with kata-guruma and later ippon-seoi-nage to score waza-ari-awasete-ippon and earn his second world bronze medal in a row.
Makhmadbekov got the better of Karapetyan in their repechage bout and faced Gochilaidze for the second bronze medal. The contest was a left-versus-left affair marked by intense battles for control of each other’s left sleeve. Each athlete had picked up two penalties by the end of the first golden score minute but immediately after picking up his second penalty, Makhmadbekov took Gochilaidze backwards using o-soto-otoshi to score waza-ari. His bronze medal is only the second world championship medal in Tajikistan’s history, after Rasul Boqiev’s bronze in 2007.
Final (-81 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-81 kg)
