Romanian Judo colossus Daniel Natea seeded for Rio

European bronze medallist Daniel Natea of Romania looked like a new man at the World Judo Masters as he won all four of his fights by ippon including the final against European Championships silver medallist Or Sasson of Israel. Natea had never beaten Sasson but was unstoppable on Sunday as he burst ahead after five seconds with a waza-ari from a harai-makikomi and then moved into the osaekomi for 15 seconds as the stunned Israeli could not escape a kesa-gatame hold.

Romanian colossus Natea will now turn his attention to the one and only, Olympic champion and eight-time world champion Teddy Riner (FRA).

In the first semi-final Natea overcame Kokauri Ushangi (AZE) by ippon after leading by a waza-ari before the athletic Sasson beat Bor Barna (HUN) with a drop seoi-nage for a yuko which settled the contest after five minutes.

Harasawa's two-year unbeaten run on the international stage was emphatically ended by Natea (ROU) in th quarter-finals. Natea defeated Japan's Rio 2016-bound heavyweight and uchi-mata specialist by ippon in arguably the biggest shock of the competition.

The first bronze medal went to Harasawa Hisayoshi (JPN) as Bor was injured and could not come out for the final block contest. The second bronze medal went to Baku Grand Slam silver medallist Roy Meyer (NED) as he fought back from a waza-ari deficit against Kokauri to level the score and then jumped into osaekomi to hold down the Azeri. Meyer shifted from a sankaku-gatame position into a mune-gatame with surprising agility after countering a weak uchi-mata to take control and end the contest on the ground. The flamboyant Dutchman was feeling the Mexican rhythm as he showed off his fancy footwork by dancing his way out of the field of play.