Koga takes 48kg gold in Baku; Yusifov wins 60kg in front of a home crowd

Japan's Wakana Koga won the women's 48-kilogram title on the opening day of the judo world championships in Baku, and Azerbaijan's Ahmad Yusifov won the men's 60-kilogram title in the same hall. The championships run from 4 to 11 October. Sunday was the first day of senior individual medals.

Koga beat the defending champion, Italy's Assunta Scutto, by ippon in the final. It was her fifth world championship and her first title. She is 25. Kyodo quoted her saying it was the first time she had felt like crying after a win, and that she had been thinking only about winning. The win moves her ahead in the selection race for Japan's place at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Selection is not the medal. The medal is a world title against the woman who arrived as champion.

In the men's 60kg, Yusifov became Azerbaijan's fourth senior world champion in judo, and the first Azerbaijani gold of this championship. The European Judo Union put his age at 27. Kyodo's dispatch, written around the Japanese bronze, called him the winner in front of his home crowd and did not give the age. The EJU account is the one with the final sequence: he followed a score into groundwork and held for a second waza-ari to complete the comeback. He told the EJU he had woken up thinking about a medal and also about gold, and that winning in Baku with his family in the stands was the part he could not put into a sentence. Silver went to Sherzod Davlatov of Kazakhstan. Bronze went to Japan's Ryuju Nagayama and to Giorgi Sardalashvili of Georgia.

Nagayama is 30. Kyodo said he cramped in his calves during the semi-final and still took the bronze. He said he would have to change his preparation if he wants the Olympic place. A bronze on day one, with a body that seized in the semi, is a selection problem as much as a medal. Japan's 60kg line for Los Angeles now has a world bronze and a public note about cramp.

The hall in Baku is the point of the double result. A home champion in the lighter men's class, on the first night, is what the organising federation wanted on the board. A Japanese champion in the lightest women's class, taken off the defending title-holder, is the result that travels. The rest of the week still has the middle and heavy classes, and the mixed team event at the end. Sunday's sheet is two golds, two named silvers and bronzes in the 60kg, and a Japanese bronze in a division where the winner was local.

Koga's line is the cleaner one for the record book. Fifth championship, first title, ippon, against Scutto. Yusifov's is the louder one in the building. Fourth world champion in the history of Azerbaijani judo, won at home, on 4 October.