Middleweight (≤90 kilograms), Men

The last two World Championships had been won by Frédéric Demontfaucon (FRA-2003) and Korea’s Hwang Hui-Tae in 2005. Also back was the defending Olympic champion, Dutch judoka Mark Huizinga. Another contender was Georgia’s Zurab Zviadauri who had placed second at the Worlds in both 2003 and 2005. Huizinga went out first, losing to Hwang in the second round, although he would go thru the repêchage to win a bronze medal, as he had in this class in 1996. In the pool final, Hwang was defeated by Japan’s Hiroshi Izumi, who had won the World University Games in 2003. In the other pool, Zviadauri advanced to the final to meet Izumi. The final was an easy victory for Zviadauri, who dominated Izumi, and won by ippon at 3:03. Zviadauri’s cousin, Ilias Iliadis of Greece, who was born in Georgia as Jarji Zviadauri, also won a gold medal in Athina in the half-middleweight class. At the 2005 World Championships in this class, Izumi won the gold medal, defeating Iliadis, who had by then moved up in class.