Women’s -48kg
Wakana Koga made quick work of her first opponent, Ho Lok Yi (HKG), throwing her with a cross-grip seoi-otoshi in the opening seconds and then pinning her to finish the match. She used the same cross-grip seoi-otoshi to throw her teammate, Hikari Yoshioka, for yuko and then kouchi-gari for another yuko. Her kouchi-gari was even sharper against Anudari Jamsran (MGL) as it landed her flat on her back for ippon. In the final, her opponent and teammate Sachiyo Yoshino scored first with kosoto-gari for yuko. Koga fired back with ouchi-gari for yuko and the pinned her Yoshino for ippon.
Women’s -52kg
Uta Abe had a rough first fight and was down two shidos to one against Nandin-Erdene Myagmarsuren (MGL) when she scored waza-ari with sode-tsurikomi-goshi in the last minute of the match. Abe then defeated her main domestic rival Kisumi Omori with a cross-grip osoto-gari for yuko. She used the same technique in her final match, which was against another Japanese, Nanako Tsubone. The score was also yuko, and just as in the semifinal, this was enough to win her the match. This was Abe’s fifth Tokyo Grand Slam gold medal.
Women’s -57kg
Akari Omori threw her first opponent, Yamini Mourya (IND), twice with harai-makikomi for waza-ari-awasete-ippon. She could only score yuko with sode-tsurikomi-goshi against Ariunzaya Terbish (MGL) but that was enough to win her the match. She used harai-makikomi and sasae-tsurikomi-ashi for waza-ari-awasete-ippon against World Champion Eteri Liparteliani in the quarterfinal. In her semifinal against teammate Mio Shirakane, Omori once again used her favorite harai-makikomi, which scored ippon. It was another All-Japan final as she faced the very experience Momo Tamioki. There was no score in regular time and the match was ultimately decided by penalties in favor of Omori.
Women’s -63kg
Haruka Kaju, a virtual unknown just one year ago, maintained her incredible winning streak for the year, defeating all-comers with her superb newaza. A newaza specialist, Kaju defeated all of her opponents: Natalia Kropska (POL), Renata Zachova (CZE), Narumi Tanioka (JPN) and Kirari Yamaguchi (JPN) with osaekomi. In the past year, Kaju has not been defeated and has earned herself gold medals in various top-level competitions including the Asian Championships and World Championships.
Men’s -90kg
Reigning World Champion Sanshiro Murao asserted his dominance in this category. He threw his first opponent, John Jayne (USA) with osoto-gari for waza-ari. The scored two yukos against teammate Komei Kawabata with a tewaza and kosoto-gari. He scored ippon against Tiziano Falcone (ITA) with the inevitable osoto-gari to win the semifinal. His final was against teammate Goki Tajima, a very powerful fighter, but Murao threw him twice and made it look easy. The first throw was an ouchi-gari that was initially scored ippon but changed to waza-ari. Then, he threw Tajima with a hopping Uchimata that scored ippon.
Men’s -100kg
Ilia Sulamanidze (GEO) didn’t start off the day too impressively. He managed to score only a yuko with sumi-gaeshi against Han Juyeop (KOR) in the first round. He did better scoring waza-ari with a well-time footsweep against Nilaz Bilalov (RUS). His semifinal was against the reigning World Champion Matvey Kanikovskiy but he took care of him with an opportunistic tewaza to counter the Russian’s sloppy uchimata for ippon. Sulamanidze saved the best for last, throwing home favorite Dota Arai (JPN) with a double-stab cross-grip osoto-gari that landed the Japanese flat on his back for an indisputable ippon.
Tokuzo Takahashi (USA) lost his first match, against Martin Bezdek (CZE) by two yukos from drop sode-tsurikomi-goshi and ouchi-gari.
Men’s +100kg
The famous Russian in this category was Inal Tasoev, the reigning World Champion. But it was another Russian, the lesser-known Valerii Endovitskii who emerged the winner. He defeated his first three opponents Kazuya Sato (JPN), Tsetsentsengel Odkhuu (MGL), Yuta Nakamura (JPN) with ouchi-gari for ippon. In the final, he faced Hyoga Ota (JPN) who had defeated his teammate Tasoev in the semifinal. The match looked like it was headed into Golden Score when literally in the last second, Endovitskii threw Ota with osoto-gari for waza-ari.
