Preliminaries, Day 1

Double Olympic medallist Distria Krasniqi showed her class at -52 kg from the earliest moments, working diligently in both tachi-waza and ne-waza to progress. In her quarter-final, she ploughed the tatami with Nisavic, using just 29 seconds to drive an inescapable o-soto-gari through the Serbian. In her semi-final she faced Reka Pupp (HUN), twice 5th place at the worlds and twice 5th place at the Olympic Games. Krasniqi continued to dominate, despite the experience of her opponent, and sailed into the final.

Assunta Scutto (ITA) didn’t have quite the same fortunes at -48 kg, bowing out against Yoshino (JPN) in her first contest, thrown twice for a yuko with ko-uchi-gari. Abuzhakynova (KAZ), Ballhaus (GER), Garrigos (ESP) and more, all appeared on this first day, with mixed results, but all dictate a level of expectation among both the spectators and the rest of the judoka.

Abuzhakynova with her trademark counter:

Surprises, just like that of Scutto, are everywhere to be found. World bronze medallist Luukas Saha (FIN) was defeated soundly by Diego Calix of El Salvador. The Panamerican fighter threw his Finnish opponent twice, the second time for ippon, clearly energised by his unlikely win. Calix has won two recent Panamerican opens but has no medal on the World Judo Tour to date. Perhaps today could have been his day, if it wasn’t for Fukuchi of Japan!

Elsewhere in the -66 kg category, Ronald Lima (BRA) had a fantastic day. He won with tomoe-nage in his first contest, caught Holoborodko (UKR) with an uchi-mata in his second and then passed Gutman (ISR) in the quarter-final. His semi-final was set-up against Kairi Kentoku (JPN) but no matter the result, the 20-year-old Brazilian would participate in his first World Judo Tour final block.

2014 world bronze medallist, Maria-Celia Laborde (USA) had a great start to her -48 kg tournament though, winning her first two contests, after a bye in the first round, to reach her semi-final. She threw Yoshino (JPN) there, in the their first exchange, but Yoshino equalised and then took the lead with almost effortless ashi-waza. Laborde would still be in the final block but on the hunt for bronze instead of gold.

World champion Garrigos (ESP), age 30, is also obeying his ranking, moving easily to a quarter-final against current world cadet champion Jonathan Yang (USA), age 17. They are the epitome of inter-generational sport, showing how universal judo is and how instant the wins and losses can be during a career; there is no easy way through, you must just simply stay and work. However, in this case, Garrigos did not arrive to compete and Yang enjoyed a touch of luck to ensure he would be in the final block.

Then there is the home interest. Each Austrian athlete is supported loudly from the stands, in addition to the volunteers who suspend their duties just for a few minutes each time one of their compatriots takes to the tatami, to watch and be part of some special judo moments. Jacqueline Springer Had all eyes on her as she reached a respectable 7th place at -48 kg. Verena Hiden, only just a senior, also had all the support she could ask for as she won in the early rounds at -57 kg, passing Gajic (SRB) and Easton (AUS) before losing to world cadet and world junior champion, 18 year old Riko Honda, in the quarter-final.

Perhaps the real star of the morning session was Nika Tomc (SLO). The 19-year-old was EYOF champion in 2023 and won the Sarajevo European Open last year. She also placed 7th at the 2024 Zagreb Grand Prix, but she has not yet taken a medal on the World Judo Tour, a marker which would see her under the spotlight far more; all senior results do this. She beat Starke (GER) who was in a qualification position for the Paris 24 Games last year and was the second seed in Linz.

Tomc won a tough quarter-final too. Her semi-final opponent was also on fine form though, as seen here:

In their semi-final, Tomc dispatched Van de Meeberg (NED) by waza-ari. The young Slovenian made it to the final, looking comfortable, calm and ready.

Krasniqi, Yang, Laborder, Abuzhakynova, Pupp, Lima, Tomc and Honda will all join us for the final block from 5pm local time. All contests and results can be followed live on JudoTV.com.