Georgia’s national judo team has won a gold medal at the World Judo Championships in Baku, with Tato Grigalashvili claiming the title in the -81kg weight category. The Georgian judoka successfully completed his campaign and became a world champion for the fourth time in his career.

Grigalashvili made a strong start to the tournament, overcoming Omarov Gajimurad of the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland’s Aurélien Bonferroni, Slovenia’s Nace Herkovic and Serbia’s Mihajlo Simin on his way to the final, reaching the World Championship final for the sixth consecutive time.

In the decisive bout, Grigalashvili faced Azerbaijan’s Zelym Kotsoiev. In front of thousands of spectators, the contest was closely fought. Neither judoka was able to secure victory in regulation time, and the bout went into golden score, where Tato Grigalashvili eventually secured the victory.

Prior to Baku, Grigalashvili had won World Championship gold medals in 2022, 2023 and 2024, while he claimed silver medals in 2021 and 2025.

With his gold medal in Baku, Tato Grigalashvili became a four-time world champion and once again made history in Georgian judo. Among Georgian judoka, only Temur Khubuluri, who won world titles in 1979 and 1981, had previously won more than one World Championship gold medal. In the history of world judo, Grigalashvili is only the second male judoka after France’s Teddy Riner to reach the World Championship final six consecutive times.

Following the Baku World Championships, Georgia’s national team has three medals - Tato Grigalashvili’s gold, Eter Liparteliani’s silver and Giorgi Sardalashvili’s bronze.