The 23-year-old Slovenian got rid of the prime favourite – the current European champion Aleksandar Kukolj from Serbia – in the semi-finals after a "marathon". The two fought for nearly seven minutes. In the end, Žgank won with a waza-ari after forcing Kukolj, the top-ranked judoist, to lie on his hip.
Prior to this fight. Žgank had to defeat Ken Kristoffer Kaljulaid from Estonia, Beka Gviniashvili from Georgia and Khusen Khalmurzaev from Russia. In the quarter-finals, the Slovenian beat the current title holder and third-placed judoist at the last Olympics, Donghan Gwak from South Korea. The latter found himself subdued by Žgank, who managed to do another waza-ari and qualify for the semi-finals.
Among female judoists, Anka Pogačnik dropped out of qualifications for the <70kg category after the second round and Klara Apotekar (<78kg category) after the first. On Thursday, Tina Trstenjak won a silver medal in the <63kg category.
A. V., MMC; translated by K. Z.
