Kayla Harrison had the right focus in Tokyo

Kayla Harrison, former world champion and current Olympic champion was the top seeded athlete of the category. After a long rehabilitation due to a knee operation two years ago, the American has been back on the world judo tour tatami for several months and she is back on the top of the world ranking list.

Nevertheless, her way back was not a peaceful one and she had to redouble her efforts to dominate the world again. In the final she was opposed to a two time winner of Grand Slams this season (Tyumen and Baku). For almost three minutes, the two athletes neutralised themselves, but the Dutch was penalised with a shido for stepping out of the tatami. Everything was still possible but Steenhuis had to take some risks, which benefited Harrison who scored a yuko on o-uchi-gari.

The London Olympic silver medallist, Gemma Gibbons (GBR), again found the way of the final block of a major event as she was opposed to Sato Ruika (JPN) for a place on the podium. The Japanese scored the first yuko with a tai-otoshi, but Gibbons reduced the score and finally took the lead with two counterattacks for yuko and then for waza-ari. With the victory, the British wins her fifth Grand Slam medal.

The second bronze medal fight was a remake of the final of the last world championships as world silver medallist, Anamari Velensek (SLO) and current world champion Umeki Mami (JPN) faced for the Grand Slam honours. After several penalties were distributed on both sides, Velensek was about to take the control of the fight, with a counterattack, which was first scored with a yuko, before it was downgraded to no score. But then Umeki received a third shido, which definitely offered the victory to the Slovenian.