Judo: France's Luka Mkheidze takes bronze at the Zagreb Grand Prix

Luka Mkheidze gave France its first medal of the Zagreb Grand Prix. On Friday, November 13, the opening day, the two-time Olympic medallist at -60 kg won his bronze medal contest against Ukraine's Dilshot Khalmatov. The bout was short on clear attacks, according to the International Judo Federation (IJF) report, and came down to penalties: Khalmatov had two at the end of regular time and picked up the third, which means disqualification, right at the start of golden score.

The gold went to Yang Yung Wei. The Chinese Taipei judoka, an Olympic silver medallist in Tokyo, beat Kazakhstan's Aman Bakytzhan in the final after seven minutes of extra time. Bakytzhan scored first with seoi-otoshi, Yang levelled with ko-uchi, and a third penalty against the Kazakh settled it. The other bronze went to Slovenia's David Starkel, who had never reached a Grand Prix podium in 23 attempts. Top seed Michel Augusto of Brazil went out early to Saudi Arabia's Abdulrahman Alsaiari, ranked 108th in the world.

Keldiyorova back on the podium

At -52 kg, Blandine Pont finished just off the podium. The Frenchwoman faced Uzbekistan's Diyora Keldiyorova, the Paris 2024 Olympic champion, who was back in competition a few months after giving birth. Keldiyorova tried seoi-otoshi without scoring, then followed up on the ground with a juji-gatame armlock to win by ippon. Pont placed fifth.

The title went to Hungary's Roza Gyertyas, who had beaten Keldiyorova by ippon in the semi-final. In the final she turned the Netherlands' Naomi Van Krevel over on the ground inside two minutes and pinned her; Van Krevel tapped before the count ran out.

Five golds, five countries

The day's five gold medals went to five different countries. At -48 kg, Italy's Assunta Scutto, a silver medallist at the Baku World Championships in October, lived up to her billing against Kazakhstan's Galiya Tynbayeva. At -57 kg, Brazil's Shirlen Nascimento won her first World Judo Tour event by beating Israel's Inbal Shemesh, while home favourite Ana Viktorija Puljiz of Croatia, the world number six, lost in the early rounds to Kosovo's Flaka Loxha. Spain's Marta Garcia Martin and Adriana Rodriguez Salvador shared the bronze medals. At -66 kg, Kazakhstan's Nurkanat Serikbayev won the final against Brazil's Ronald Lima, who had needed only six and a half minutes in total for his first four wins. With one gold and two silvers, Kazakhstan leads the medal table after day one, ahead of Brazil.

The Grand Prix continues on Saturday with the men's -73 and -81 kg and the women's -63 and -70 kg. On Sunday, France will look to Kaïla Issoufi, the world silver medallist at -78 kg, and Léa Fontaine at +78 kg. Preliminaries start at 9:45 am local time and the final block at 5 pm, live on JudoTV.