Tato Grigalashvili of Georgia won the 81kg division gold medal at the 2026 World Judo Championships on October 7, 2026, at the Baku National Gymnastics Arena in Azerbaijan, defeating local competitor Zelim Tckaev in the final, as eJudo reported the tournament results from the 48-man bracket.
Final Standings and Medals in Baku
Grigalashvili secured the world title with a disciplined campaign through the Georgian entry, topping an 81kg field that drew 48 judoka. Zelim Tckaev took the silver medal for host nation Azerbaijan after a hard-fought run to the final. The bronze medals went to Azerbaijan’s Omar Rajabli and Serbia’s Mihajlo Simin.
Abylaikhan Zhubanazar of Kazakhstan and Joonhwan Lee of South Korea finished equal fifth, while Nace Hercovic of Slovenia and Matthias Casse of Belgium rounded out the podium places in seventh.
Golden Score Bouts Decide Early 81kg Category Rounds
The early rounds of the 81kg category produced several prolonged contests extending into Golden Score. Aurelien Bonferonni of Switzerland defeated Johan Šilショット of the United States by hansoku-make (three shidos) at 1:07 of Golden Score.
Yahya Nurković of Montenegro advanced past Adrian Sulca of Romania with a sumi-gaeshi in Golden Score at 3:35.
Regulation time finishes featured Nace Hercovic pinning Oyunchimeg Sinebayar of Mongolia with a yoko-shiho-gatame at 3:56. Vladislav Kolobov of Ukraine secured a kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame over Jordan Kouros of Greece at 1:09. Jargal Saikhan or Jalgas Kairolla of Kazakhstan defeated Elman Gürgen of Turkey by obi-tori-gaeshi at 3:18, and Vusal Ghalandarzada of Azerbaijan turned back Hristo Valkov of Bulgaria with an o-soto-gaeshi at 3:12.
Standard Technical Victories Across the Bracket
Other preliminary matches ended within regular time through varied scoring techniques. Manuel Parlati of Italy topped Petru Pelivan with a waza-ari from uki-waza. Sibgatullah Arab, competing for the IJF Refugee Team, defeated Mahamadou Doucara of Mali with a tsuri-komi-goshi for waza-ari.
Shim Jae-yun of South Korea threw Kwok-win Lee of Hong Kong with a seoi-nage at 3:37. Nugzari Tatalashvili of the United Arab Emirates threw Vasilije Grujičić of Serbia with a tai-otoshi at 2:06.
Keisin Ochi of Australia scored a waza-ari with a de-ashi-barai against Abdul-Kader Boubacar Adam of Niger.
