The -100kg Paris 2024 judo final was truly a battle of the titans.
Their head-to-head record going in to Paris was 2-2, and the Olympic final would become the ultimate tiebreaker.
But reigning world champion and world No. 1 Zelym Kotsoiev of Azerbaijan made the standings clear tonight. He defeated Ilia Sulamanidze of Georgia with a tactical victory in the final to take the second gold medal in judo for his nation.
“I have thought about this many, many times, and it took me a while to get here, and now it’s like a dream and I do not want to wake up,” Kotsoiev shared.
