One
France is arriving in the Georgian capital with some serious firepower. Aptly, Olympic medallist after Olympic medallist will step on to the tatami of the Olympic Sports Palace in Tbilisi, ready to show the judo world what a star-studded team looks like. Buchard, Agbegnenou, Mcheidze, Cysique and Dicko each have more than one Olympic medal! This is an immense team.
Those 5 judoka are backed up by Boukli and Gaba with their Paris 2024 medals and that’s before we reach several more European medallists who have yet to feel the Olympic mats under their feet. It seems they could be racing Georgia to the top of the medal table this coming weekend!
Two
The cadets are continuing their march into the senior ranks, making their intentions known even at this early point in the Los Angeles Olympic cycle. Clarice Ribeiro (BRA) has two world cadet titles and in 2024 she added a junior world bronze to the list. This will be her first grand slam but that’s not to say she doesn’t have experience; she does!
Mongolia also has a fantastic group of cadets in the women’s categories at the moment; they made themselves known last year at the Lima cadet worlds. One of them was Ariunzaya Terbish. She won the -57 kg category in Peru last summer and since then has won a bronze at the Tokyo Grand Slam, an impressive momentum. She won’t be an easy first fight in Tbilisi for anyone.
Terbish’s teammate, Anudari Jamsran, won silver in Lima and then placed 5th in Tokyo too. She’s a very welcome addition to the senior -48 kg ranks, despite her very young age.
Three
Aqulina Chayeb is a Lebanese judoka, hailing from a country not usually included within the upper echelons of the sport. However, at just 20 years old, she has already competed at 7 World Judo Tour events, 3 junior and a cadet worlds and in Linz just two weeks ago she earned her first placing on the senior Tour.
Chayeb has some very good results at the junior level, an Asian championship bronze and several medals on the European cup tour. She’s one to watch and although the draw in Tbilisi will have an impact on what happens next for her, the future stretches way beyond the Georgian chapter and so this could be a name worth committing to memory. Aqulina Chayeb… just dropping a final reminder here!
The arena will be ready very soon, the airport is already bustling. The Tbilisi Grand Slam is almost upon us and we can’t wait!