China stood atop the medal tally with 9 gold medals across the 14 categories. The Chinese women’s team, headlined by Asian champion and world number 12 Jinesinuer Ayiman, won each of the 7 women’s categories, which will serve as excellent preparation ahead of their home grand prix in the weeks to come. World Judo Tour medallist Lu Liu was equally impressive in the women’s -70 kg division as she stormed to gold.
Outside of the home team, the medallists came from Chinese Taipei’s Ying-Chen Wang with bronze in the -52 kg division, Qona Christa from New Zealand with bronze in the -63 kg category and silver at -70 kg category went to Saya Middleton from Australia.
In the men’s field, the opening day saw Australia claim gold medals in the -60 kg and -66 kg categories courtesy of Pedro Antun-Neto and Vas Middleton. Still a junior, the gold medal was the 2nd this year at senior Asian open level for Middleton. This took Australia to second on the medal table.
Aside from the host nation, gold medals were won by Kazakhstan’s Yermek Amangeldi, with a dynamic performance in the -73 kg division, New Zealand’s Noah Wallis at -90 kg and Korean heavyweight Changil Yang at +100 kg.
The host nation’s dominance continued in the men’s -100 kg category with Asian champion Fuchun Huang blasting to victory, alongside countryman Youxiu in the -81 kg division.
Reinforcing the trends of positive, dynamic judo, the final highlight from the event saw 95% of contests decided by a positive score and 44% of contests ending with ippon.
In 3 week’s time, the world will return to China for the 2025 Qingdao Grand Prix, from 26-28th September.