Jonathan Charón Lost in the Judo World Cup

Jonathan Charón (60 kg) fell in his first bout at the Budapest 2025 World Judo Championships, which started on Friday.

The Cuban offered a close fight to Tajik Mehrzod Sufiev, who although nine steps below in the ranking, was very strong.

Sufiev gained an advantage a minute and a half into the bout when he grabbed the forward right leg of the Caribbean man and got a knockdown with a ko-uchi-gari technique, which earned him a yuko.

That was enough, because they could not score any more and the sound of the gon, after the four minutes of regulation, decreed the victory of the Asian, who fell immediately after at the hands of French Romain Valadier Picard.

The latter won his first gold medal at the world championships, as he lost in the final to the bronze medalist at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Japan's Ryuju Nagayama.

Russia's Ayub Bliev and Mongolia's Yolk Kazirbyek won the bronze medals. 

In the 48 kg division, Italy's Assunta Scutto was crowned, improving on the silver medal she won at Abu Dhabi 2024.

In the final, she defeated Kazakhstan's Abiba Abuzhakynova, who also surpassed the result of the previous edition, when she won bronze.

The third places went to Japan's Wakana Koga and Spain's Laura Martinez.

On Saturday, Cuba will be represented by Orlando Polanco (66 kg), seeded in the second round pending a decision between Cypriot Georgios Balarjishvili and Serbian Strahinja Buncic.