One - Seeding is a big deal and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. At -52kg the world number one, Chelsie Giles, is not in Doha. She would have been the top seed, moving everyone up a place in the draw.
Abe, the Olympic champion in the category is now number 6 on the World Ranking List and without Giles in the mix that puts her on Krasniqi’s (KOS) half of the draw. Maybe that’s better, maybe it’s worse, no-one wants an Olympic champion floating about being placed randomly, perhaps to ruin the day of a continental champion and medal hope or maybe even to have been drawn in the first round against one of the other top seeds. Uta having seeding is generally good! She competes so little that she may have been unseeded, as with Clarisse at -63kg, for example.
However, this circumstance also means that Buchard (FRA), one of a tiny group of judoka ever to have beaten Abe, having done so in Osaka in 2019, is likely to meet her in the quarter-final. With Giles in the category, that would not have been likely.
Two - We are all talking about the same thing, really, we can’t deny it. We are all glad that both Hifumi Abe and Joshiro Maruyama had seeding and that the draw could split them until the very end of the day. Judo fans expect that final and no other result. Either could win and we are satisfied either way!
The epic 20 minute contest to decide Japan’s -66kg spot for the Tokyo Games, effectively decided who would be Olympic champion at home and who wouldn’t even have the chance to fight. Maruyama’s disappointment was felt around the judo world but all also marvelled at the extraordinary capability of Abe.
In Doha Abe must get past Margvelashvili again, as he did in the final of the Games. They are in the same quarter in Qatar. Maruyama’s path may look a little easier but we know that Shmailov (ISR) is a big thrower and he won’t allow the Japanese to walk all over him.
Day two can be followed live via JudoTV