TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Yang Yung-wei (楊勇緯) lost in the finals of the 60-kg men’s judo competition to Georgia’s Giorgi Sardalashvili at the Abu Dhabi World Championships.

Yang competed in a closely fought match with Sardalashvil, which was decided by sudden death. Although earning a silver medal in the competition, Yang punched his ticket as the top seed in the upcoming Paris Olympics.

The Abu Dhabi World Championships were the final tune-up for the upcoming Olympics and the final tournament where Olympic qualification points could be earned. Results from the tournament allowed Yang to finish with 5310 total points, fulfilling his goal of top seed in the Olympics for his weight category, per CNA.

In the championship match, Yang faced Georgia’s Giorgi Sardalashvili, ranked number eight in the world. The competitors faced each other in two prior matches, with each judoka recording one win apiece. 

Both judokas proved to be evenly matched with no decision after four minutes of regular time with the match going to overtime or a sudden-death period with no time limit, to be decided by a “golden score.” The action seesawed back and forth with attacks and counterattacks, ending when Sardalashvili secured a waza-ari (throw), defeating Yang at the 7:20 minute mark.

Before the gold medal round, Yang received a first-round bye before facing Belgium's Jorre Verstraeten, Egyptian Youssry Samy, and France’s Romain Valadier-Picard, who was disqualified for attempting a throw at Yang’s straightened arm. Later, Yang faced Russia’s Ayub Bliev, who suffered the same fate of disqualification after multiple fouls, allowing Yang to advance to the gold medal match.

Yang was a silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, a bronze medal winner at the 2022 Judo World Championships, and exited the 2023 Judo World Championships in the 16th round. With Yang’s top international ranking and seeding, many believe he is Taiwan’s best chance for a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.