Soichi Hashimoto

Soichi Hashimoto ( Japanese 橋本壮市 , Hashimoto Soichi ; * August 24, 1991 ) is a Japanese judoka . He was 2017 World Champion in the lightweight, the weight category to 73 kg.

Career

Soichi Hashimoto was Japanese champion in 2015 and won a bronze medal at the Asian Championships. In 2016 he won the Asian Championships and the Grand Slam tournament in Tokyo . In February 2017 he won the Grand Slam tournament in Paris . Two months later he won the Japanese championships. In May 2017 he won the Grand Slam tournament in Yekaterinburg . At the 2017 World Championships in Budapest , he defeated Georgian Lascha Schawdatuaschwili in the quarter -finals, the Azerbaijani Hidayət Heydərov in the semifinals and the second Azerbaijani Rustam Orujov in the final . In 2018, Hashimoto won the Japanese championships again. At the 2018 World Championships in Baku , he defeated the Kazakhs Zhansay Smagulov in the quarter-finals and Hidayət Heydərov in the semifinals, losing the final to the South Korean An Chang-rim . In early 2019, Hashimoto won the Paris Grand Slam. At the Japanese Championships in 2019 he was defeated in the final Shōhei Ōno .