Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Uzbekistan’s Muradjon Yuldoshev won a bronze medal in the under-81kg category at the Hungary Grand Slam 2026 in Budapest.
In the bronze-medal bout, Yuldoshev faced Serbia’s Vasilije Grujicic. The Uzbek judoka secured a place on the podium by scoring two yuko points, first with an o-uchi-gari technique and then with ko-uchi-gari.
In the other bronze-medal bout, Azerbaijan’s Vusal Galandarzade defeated Slovenia’s Nace Herkovic. The winner scored waza-ari with a seoi-otoshi technique.
Japan’s Yoshito Hojo won gold in the under-81kg category after defeating Serbia’s Mihajlo Simin in the final. The bout went into golden score overtime to determine the winner.
Hojo remained composed, contained his opponent’s attacks and forced him to receive a third penalty. After Simin was penalized for the third time, the victory was awarded to the Japanese judoka.
Simin, 21, also won a bronze medal at the 2026 European Championships and bronze medals at the Grand Slam tournaments in Tbilisi and Ulaanbaatar. In 2025, the Serbian won his first Grand Prix title in Lima and took bronze at the World Junior Championships.
After his victory, Hojo said he had not competed internationally for a long time and was particularly pleased to win gold. According to the Japanese judoka, his readiness to attack continuously and avoid pauses was the decisive factor.
The final medal standings in the under-81kg category were:
Yoshito Hojo (Japan) — gold
Mihajlo Simin (Serbia) — silver
Muradjon Yuldoshev (Uzbekistan) and Vusal Galandarzade (Azerbaijan) — bronze
