Let’s take a moment to enjoy the energy of the new generation of Japanese judoka. The -100 entry is only 22 years old and has never fought on the World Judo Tour before. However, he has arrived with enthusiasm and commitment and is clearly willing to learn on the go. The kumi-kata in Europe is not what the young Japanese will be used to but this challenge has to be faced head on.
Tetta Hamada (JPN) is responding well, using good judo to combat all conundrums, exploring hip throws and ashi-waza, playing with the unorthodox gripping and, importantly, looking to attack from many different positions, despite the movement being somewhat alien. Against Oliver Barrett (GBR) Hamada seemed to enjoy the fast pace and the physicality of the contest and it worked in his favour!
Hamada then lost his quarter-final to Kuczera (POL) and Kuczera then lost to Nikoloz Sherazadishvili (ESP) in their semi-final, although the Spanish fighter had to do it from a score down after a slip cost him a yuko. His response? An enormous hiza-ura-nage for ippon. Sherazadishvili has been having a great day. He threw and held Assis (BRA) and then threw Milan Bulaja (SRB) with a massive uchi-mata before dealing with Kuczera.
Hamada, won his repechage contest, another physical confrontation, to place himself in the final block of his first WJT meet.
At -78 kg, the athlete to beat is Lytvynenko (UAE); head and shoulders above the rest, in terms of level. She can throw from in close, from off the grip, with the feet, the hips or the hands and it is impressive, great to watch! She threw Ludford (GBR) three times, all small scores but totally in control. She then won with this very special de-ashi-harai against Gorguet-Veranes (ROU):
Her semi-final was won without breaking a sweat too, 3 scores including an uchi-mata and another de-ashi-harai. It looks like she has claimed the points and the gold medal already!
The heaviest of the women’s categories, one weight up from Lytvynenko, was always going to be dominated by the French, aside from any potential catastrophe. And so it was that Celia Cancan and Leonie Minkada-Caquineau arrived in the final after rejecting all challengers with relative ease. The truly remarkable part of this is that Cancan is only 19, still a junior, while Minkada-Caquineau is even younger, still a cadet! She already logged a junior European medal this year but this is her first senior outing and before the final block is even underway, she has already guaranteed herself a medal.
With far more experience than the French pair, 2023 -90 kg world champion and 4-time world medallist overall, Luka Maisuradze (GEO) made his way to the final block after a series of contests which pushed him more than he might have liked. Kotsoev (AZE), the younger one, Radulj (SRB) and Ivanov (BUL) were the other three semi-finalists, the Bulgarian coming through to face the Georgian in the last fight of their category. Will that be a step too far for Maisuradze?
At +100 kg only one of the top 4 seeds didn’t make it to the semi-final stage; number one seed Balyevskyy (UKR) was knocked out by Stephan Hegyi (AUT) in the round of 16. The Austrian won another before struggling and eventually losing against a much bigger Azerbaijani opponent, Nasibov, the 4th seed.
Inaneishvili (GEO) and Spijkers (NED), 2nd and 3rd seeds respectively, followed the plan perfectly all the way to their shared semi-final where the Dutchman threw with o-uchi-gari before holding the Georgian for ippon.
With the final block contests now billed, the preliminaries came to a close. After 3 fantastic days of judo, only the last final block remains. Tune in to JudoTV from 5pm local time to follow all the action live and unleashed!