In the -48kg final, the anticipated winner was Tara Babulfath (SWE). But Tugce Beder (TUR) fought a very tactical match, constantly attacking Babulfath. Beder ramped up the attacks once they went into Golden Score, and won by penalties.
The -60kg final was between two relative unknowns. Izhak Ashpiz (ISR) is a World Cadet Champion and he already has one Grand Prix gold to his name. But he is only 18 years old and had not broken into the Top 20 in the World Rankings yet. Achyty Dombuu (RUS) is even more unknown and was ranked 141. Both had fought well throughout the day and the final promised to be an exciting one. They didn’t disappoint. Ashpiz scored first with a hugging front uchimata that scored waza-ari. Dombuu got a yuko from a counter against Ashpiz’s kouchi-gari. At that point, there was still about a minute and half left but try as he might, Dombuu could not score again before time ran out. This second IJF gold is a fantastic result for the young Israeli player, Ashpiz, who looks set to become a real force to contend with in the coming years.
Blandine Pont (FRA) suffered a first match knockout in the Paris Grand Slam. But she has bounced right back and won the gold medal at the Tbilisi Grand Slam, defeating Tatum Keen (GBR) with an osoto-gari for yuko in the final of the -52kg division.
It looked like the -66kg final between Turan Bayramov (AZE) and Nurkanat Serikbayev (KAZ) was heading towards Golden Score when Serikbayev pulled off a one-handed uchimata that was just enough to get yuko in the dying seconds of their match. And with that, he got his second-ever IJF gold medal. His first one was also in Tbilisi in 2024.
It was all All-Israeli affair in the -57kg final at the Tbilisi Grand Slam, with Timna Nelson Levy going up against teammate Inbal Shemesh, who normally fights in the -63kg division. Nelson Levy emerged victor, using her favorite kosoto to score ippon.
