At -48kg, the title goes to the three-time reigning world champion, Natsumi Tsunoda (JPN). At -52kg, it was the quadruple world champion and Olympic champion Uta Abe (JPN), who won by giving a judo demonstration in each contest of the day, imitated a little later by her older brother Hifumi Abe, also an Olympic and 4-time world gold medallist. These two are preparing the ground to write a new page of history this summer in Paris. Where will they stop and who can stop them?
In the -60kg category, Luka Mkheidze (FRA), Olympic bronze medallist, thought he could take the title but he was outclassed by a brilliant Bliev (AIN). Just the -57 kg group remained to conclude this incredible day and the gold medal went to Canada and world number one Christa Deguchi, who confirms her status as favourite for the Games in the very difficult Canadian selection problem. Today, Jessica Klimkait was not present, so let's see what the next episode of this incredible story brings us.
At the end of the day, Japan lead the ranking with three gold medals, followed by Canada. France is just behind with one silver and two bronze medals, while the host country, Türkiye, can count on two strong medallists. Despite the domination of Japan, it was 13 countries who reached the podium. At every event, it feels like we already reached the summit of what we can expect from a World Judo Tour event. The point is that we are wrong because every time it is stronger and more exciting and this was definitely the case today.
On day 2 of the Antalya Grand Slam 2024, we await more energy, more waza-ari and ippon scores. Follow all the action on https://judotv.com/ from 9:30 a.m. local time.