Five weight categories were contested at the Uzbekistan Sports Centre today as the event got underway.

Kosovo top the medal table as Rio 2016 champion Kelmendi returned to top form in the women's under-52 kilograms.

Kelmendi had not fought since 2017 when she took silver at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam in October.

In Tashkent, she had to battle the top seed, Evelyne Tschopp of Switzerland, but produced an ippon by koshi-waza technique to secure the gold.

Poland's Agata Perenc and Spain's Ana Perez Box took the bronze medals.

In the lightest female category at under-48kg, Kelmendi's compatriot Distria Krasniqi took gold after beating the former Olympic bronze medallist Eva Csernoviczki of Hungary.

Krasniqi scored a waza-ari first before her opponent conceded a third and final shido to hand the victory to the Kosovo judoka.

Portugal's Joana Diogo and Serbia's Milica Nikolic were awarded the bronze medals.

European champion Nora Gjakova could only manage silver for Kosovo in the women's under-57kg event as she was thrown by Germany's Theresa Stoll.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Slam winner was thrown twice in the match but added to her country's medal tally with second place.

Bronze medals were claimed by Slovenia's Kaja Kajzer and Amelie Stoll of Germany.

Elsewhere, the hosts took two silvers on the first day of competition in the men's events.

In the under-60kg category, home favourite Diyorbek Urozboev suffered defeat in the gold medal match by ippon.

Mongolia's Ganbat Boldbaatar countered the Uzbek's attack with te-waza for the win.

Germany's Moritz Plafky and Yung Wei Yang of Chinese Taipei collected the bronze medals.

In the other men's competition, Uzbekistan's Sardor Nuillaev was undone by a waza-ari from Slovenia's Adrian Gomboc who took gold.

Nuillaev's team-mate Shakhram Akhadov and Azerbaijan's Nijat Shikhalizada took home the bronze medals in the men's under-66kg event.