Barbara Matic became Croatia's first ever judo world champion Thursday fighting off a late choke attempt to defeat Japan's Yoko Ono in the women's 70 kg finals in Budapest, Hungary. Matic scored late with a tani otoshi throw tripping Ono to the mat though Ono got a strong grip on the lapel of Matic's gi going for the choke. But Matic was able to survive until time expired to claim the title.

While Matic came into the world championships unseeded, Spain's Nikoloz Sherazadishvili was the number one seed in the men's 90 kg class and lived up to the billing winning the gold. Sherazadishvili had to go into golden score (overtime) to secure the title in the finals against Uzbekistan's Davlat Bobonov where he countered Bobonov's outside trip attempt with an inside trip to take the match.