Colin Oates beat the reigning Olympic Champion with an incredible ippon in a revenge rematch of London 2012 and triumphed over a double former World Champion by a yuko on day two of the Judo World Championships in Rio.

But the Brit, who finished in seventh place at London 2012, was denied a medal for his efforts after being thrown for ippon by this year’s eventual World silver medalist Azamat Mukanov of Kazakhstan.

After beating Oates in the final 16 clash, Mukanov – an Asian Championships bronze medallist, went on to seize the silver after losing to the 2011 and now 2013 World Champion Masashi Ebinuma of Japan.

Oates started his bid for World Championship glory in true style after beating two-time world champion and double Olympic bronze medalist Rishod Sobirov of Uzbekistan by yuko during golden score in his first round.

At the end of the five minutes both were equal with two shidos a piece, spiralling the contest into golden score where Oates triumphed throwing his opponent for yuko.

This gave him the confidence to go into his second match and come from a yuko down to throw the reigning Olympic Champion Lasha Shavdatuashvili of Georgia for ippon, who he lost to in the quarter-finals of London 2012.

Oates, 30, claimed victory in the third minute against the Georgian, who is nine years his junior and also the current European Champion.

The fact he beat two London 2012 medalists in a row, shows that Oates is a force to be reckoned with ahead of the 2016 Olympics which will take place on the same soil.

Japan has dominated the championships so far, with Naohisa Takato winning the -60kg category yesterday (the class in which Ashley McKenzie fought), and now another Japanese judoka winning today. This just goes to show that the nation who founded the sport are still dominant on the world stage.

Watch the two fights here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlTRPNRTNio

Words by Donna Richardson. Image courtesy of IJF by G. Sabau and Zahonyi.