-48kg: Boukli in the Driving Seat The favourite at -48kg will undoubtedly be the top seed and world number 6 Shirine Boukli (FRA), who will be looking to cement her place as one of the seeded players for her home Olympics. The Frenchwoman took an excellent gold medal on home soil at the Paris Grand Slam in February, in what has so far been her only outing on the WJT in 2024.
If she is to top the podium here, Boukli may have to get past the likes of number two seed and Tashkent Grand Slam 2024 winner Sabina Giliazova (AIN), surprise European champion from two weeks ago, Kristina Dudina (AIN), bronze medallist here last year Khalimajon Kurbonova (UZB), or home favourite and fifth seed Galiya Tynbaeva (KAZ). Tynbaeva will be eager to improve on her fifth place finish at this event last year.
After taking silver in Dushanbe last week, Tugce Beder (TUR) increased her lead over compatriot Sila Ersin (TUR) in the Olympic rankings and comes into this event as the number four seed. Meanwhile, Ersin is unseeded and has an uphill battle if she is to turn the tide and overtake Beder in the rankings. For the athletes from Israel and Brazil, the race for an Olympic place in the category is also going to go down to the wire.
-60kg: All-Kazakh Showdown for Shamshadin and Smetov Following his gold medal-winning performance in front of his home crowd in Dushanbe, Muhammadsoleh Quvatov (TJK) finds himself in a continental qualifying position for the Paris Olympics and is the eighth seed in Astana. He will be hoping to pick up yet more points and solidify his position but faces the prospect of a quarter-final against Tokyo Olympic silver medallist and top seed Yung-Wei Yang (TPE).
All eyes will be on team Kazakhstan, however, and the three-way race between 4-time grand slam medallist Magzhan Shamshadin, double Olympic medallist Yeldos Smetov and former cadet world champion Nurkhanat Serikbayev. 21-year-old Serikbayev currently leads in the rankings but is absent from Astana this time.
After taking silver in Dushanbe last week, Shamshadin is only a few places behind and would overtake his younger counterpart with a podium finish at this event; he won gold in 2023. Smetov trails both significantly, so he must top the podium here to have any chance of catching his teammates. Shamshadin and Smetov are drawn to meet in the semi-final, a potential clash that would have the host nation on the edge of their seats.
-52kg: Seeded Athletes Have the Most to Lose Three of the medallists from Dushanbe last week will be back in action this weekend. The Swiss duo of Fabienne Kocher and Binta Ndiaye contested the final in Tajikistan and their gold and silver medals helped their country top the medal table at an IJF World Judo Tour event for the first time. They are seeded seventh and sixth, respectively, and are thus drawn to meet at the semi-final stage. Both are in a qualifying position for the Olympics but Ndiaye maintains a slender lead.
All the seeded athletes are currently in Olympic qualifying positions but there are numerous unseeded athletes lying just outside the direct qualification zone who will be on a mission to climb the rankings. Among them are Sofia Asvesta (CYP) who finished 5th last week and sits in a continental spot, Antalya Grand Slam 2024 bronze medallist Ana Viktoria Puljiz (CRO) and Abu Dhabi Grand Slam 2023 bronze medallist Naomi Van Krevel (NED).
-66kg: Rahimov’s Not Resting on His Laurels Twenty year old Serdar Rahimov (TKM) became the first Turkmen judoka to win a grand slam, the first ever, when he struck gold in Dushanbe a week ago. His 1000 points flung him 21 places up the World Ranking List and sat him inside the Olympic qualification zone for the first time, doubling the Turkmenistan team’s direct entry; Maysa Pardayeva (-57 kg) being the other qualified athlete.
Rahimov arrives in Kazakhstan as 7th seed, not backing away from the challenge of fighting again so soon and not buckling under the pressure of watchful eyes. Getting through the first two rounds should be fairly straight forward but to back up his new medal-winning image, he’ll need to pass double Olympic medallist Baul An (KOR) or perhaps Chopanov (AIN) in the quarter-final. It won’t be easy but he’s no longer under the radar and must stand up for his gold medal. Can he do it again?
Meanwhile, flamboyant French entertainer Walid Khyar (FRA) is seeded number one, just as he was last week. Unlike Rahimov, Khyar will not want a repeat of his Dushanbe performance having lost in his first contest against unseeded Nutfulloev (UZB). Frascadore (CAN) might pay the price for Khyar’s loss a week ago when they meet in their first preliminary contest. As Frascadore is in a head-to-head battle with Kelly Deguchi (-52 kg) for a continental quota place for Paris, it could be a very hard day indeed for the Canadian.
-57kg: World Medallists Assemble 4 of the 6 world medallists in this category have gathered in pool B, a special kind of reunion none would have wanted. Funakubo (JPN) sits at the top of the quarter while Smythe-Davis (GBR), Monteiro (POR) and Kowalczyk (POL) are all in the bottom half of it meaning at least two of them won’t make it to be quarter-final. This is a stark reminder of why seeding and current ranking is so significant.
The other two world medallist, both world champions, will be happy to have been separated from the rest. Silva (BRA) is away from all of the other 5 on the bottom half, heading up pool D. Deguchi (CAN), world number one, current world champion and owner of the most points of any athlete on the Tour, is in pool A and shouldn’t be disturbed at all on her way to the semi-final. She can sit back and enjoy the carnage in pool B!
It’s a 10 a.m. kick-off and if you can’t be in Kazakhstan to witness it in person, download the all-new JudoTV app and get watching on the go!