For the first 2 minutes it was a kumi-kata battle but last he third minute began, Tajima launched a massive o-uchi-gari, catching Tokumochi’s ankle and driving him backwards and into the tatami. Ippon was scored, nothing else could be accepted. Tajima now has a world gold and a Paris gold; his collection is growing!

Alexis Mathieu wanted to finish his competition with a medal-winning performance in front of his home crowd but Olympic medallist Theodoros Tselidis (GRE) stood in his way.

Tselidis made a catastrophic mistake though, dropping to the floor without breaking Mathieu’s balance at all and so the Frenchman capitalised quickly, tying him up and turning him on to his back. He secured the osaekomi.

The second bronze medal contest featured Egor Andoni (RUS) and Guilherme Schmidt (BRA). It was close and un predictable from the beginning but no scores were logged until the last 40 seconds when Andoni engaged with a double-step tai-otoshi to spin Schmidt over his leg and on to the tatami. A waza-ari was given, one which Schmidt could not answer. The medal would be heading to Russia in Andoni’s kit bag.