-52kg:
Three out of four of the top -52kg seeds were able to progress into the semi-finals.
Amandine BUCHARD (FRA), ABE Uta (JPN) and Erika MIRANDA (BRA) won their respective pools to live up to their billing.
In pool C Natalia KUZIUTINA (RUS) lost out to world champion SHISHIME Ai (JPN) by a waza-ari score. While the results have largely gone by the form book so far, there’s still a lot of judo to come in the final block and the intensity is growing by the round. ABE Uta (JPN) has been the most impressive judoka in the category thus far and could end up fighting her teammate and defending world champion SHISHIME Ai (JPN) with the -52kg crown on the line.
Semi-Finals BUCHARD, Amandine (FRA) v ABE, Uta (JPN) MIRANDA, Erika (BRA) v SHISHIME, Ai (JPN)
MEN
-66kg:
Two out of the four top seeds in the men’s -66kg category were able to overcome tricky contests in the pool stage to secure semi-final spots. European Championships bronze medallist and world number one Tal FLICKER (ISR) held firm in pool A. The Israeli survived a lengthy quarter-final battle against Daniel CARGNIN (BRA) which required six minutes of golden score before FLICKER produced a waza-ari score. His teammate Baruch SHMAILOV (ISR) did not fare so well as he suffered a surprise third round loss against world number 36 Yerlan SERIKZHANOV (KAZ). The surprise package from Kazakhstan then defeated GANBOLD Kherlen (MGL) in the quarter-finals.
ABE Hifumi (JPN) lit up the preliminaries with a breathtaking display of ippon judo to power into the last four with ease. In pool D, 2017 world bronze medallist Vazha MARGVELASHVILI (GEO) came unstuck against Sebastian SEIDL (GER) in round three by ippon. Olympic silver medallist AN Baul (KOR) book his spot in the last four at the expense of Mikhail PULIAEV (RUS) as the former world champion claimed the fourth and final pool.