The Preliminaries, Day 3

It has been ten months since we saw 2023 world silver medallist and 2024 European silver medallist Julia Tolofua (FRA) on an international tatami and it was a pleasant reunion. She won her first +78 kg contest without breaking a sweat but was undone in the quarter-final against Japan’s Chihiro Yamaguchi, a teenager who already has results at grand slam level, bronzes in Dushanbe and Tokyo last year. Tolofua had the repechage to come and could therefore still make it to the podium, these minutes of competition essential for her reintegration. Judoka often talk about the need to find their feeling again after a break from tournaments and Tolofua must be in this brigade in Tashkent.

Tolofua was seeded second at the beginning of the day, above her a world and Olympic medallist, Raz Hershko (ISR). Hershko also didn’t follow the guide of her seeding, losing to Xinran Niu (CHN) in their quarter-final. This put her on the other side of the repechange. Anyone else dropping down to fight for the bronze medals would not be looking forward to it now; the prospect of facing Tolofua or Hershko is undoubtedly intimidating.

In the repechage, Julia Tolofua threw Mishiner (ISR) twice with uchi-mata, a waza-ari and a yuko to show for them. They were enough to put the Frenchwoman in a World Judo Tour final block for the first time since Antalya last year.

Another surprise was the very early departure of -90 kg number one seed Nemanja Majdov (SRB). Shakhzodxuja Sharipov of the host team threw him with an enormous o-soto-gari in the first exchange, one Majdov appeared to climb on the back of by choice. Perhaps complacency was at play or maybe it was just a simple mistake but Majdov is out and Uzbekistan’s drummers offered musical accompaniment as Sharipov left the tatami victorious.

Kawabata (JPN) was the real man to beat though. His throwing ability is just fantastic, textbook even. In his semi-final for example, he threw Varapayeu (IJF) for ippon as if practising nage-komi, dropping underneath him with a seoi-otoshi Varapayeu did not have time to react to. Perhaps surprisingly it would be Sharipov meeting him in the final after he continued his winning streak from the first round. The 20-year-old is current junior Asian champion but has no reference at the senior level.

World silver medallist Zhenzhao Ma (CHN) put paid to Petrunjela Pavic’s (CRO) hopes of reaching the top step of the -78 kg category in Tashkent. Pavic has never won a grand slam medal, not on 9 previous occasions. She was on a good path from the first round though, beating Freitas (BRA) and Dudenaite (LTU) on her way to the quarter-final. But Ma was the one who went through to the semi-final, sending Pavic to the repechage, a medal still in her sights. However, Tatarchenko (IJF) countered her in the repechage for a waza-ari and no matter how hard she tried, Pavic couldnt’ even the scores. An 11th appearance would now be required to chase that first grand slam medal.

Elsewhere in the category, Lanir (ISR), Boehm (GER) and Olek (GER) all obeyed their seeding to the semi-final stage but there was a surpsie in store for the highest ranked among them. Lanir suffered in ne-waza, held down by Ma.

Having won her pool, in which Olympic champion Shori Hamada had been defeated by Gimenes (BRA) and Gimenes had been defeated by Boehm, Alina Boehm faced her teammate Anna Monta Olek for a place in the final. Boehm had been in a tight race with Wagner throughout the Paris Olympic qualification period but it was Wagner who got the nod. Now in a new cycle, Boehm is determined to be the new german number one. To that end a shime-waza put her in the final to face Ma, pushing Olek into a bronze medal contest. This new German rivalry looks set to take centre stage in the years to come as we approach Los Angeles.

Batchaev (IJF) and 2022 world champion Andy Granda (CUB) had a spectacular contest in their +100 kg semi-final. Batchaev led for most of the contest by waza-ari but Granda didn’t give up for a single second and registered his own waza-ari on the bell from a beautiful ippon seoi-nage that made the crowd gasp. They went straight into golden score and Granda almost scored again, a yuko wiped off the board by video review. Just a minute or so later and Batchaev countered for his own yuko and this time it would stand. Granda had to settle for a bronze medal contest.

Uzbek hopes in the heavyweight men’s section were pinned on Alisher Yuspov, an Olympic and world medallist who always brings excitement. Valerii Endovitskii (IJF) is a powerhouse to be reckoned with though, one who dispatched both Ravshanulov and Yusupov from the host team, to reach the final, joining Batchae

The final block promises big wins and new champions, beginning at 5pm local time. All contests will be streamed on JudoTV; tune in to see it all live.