Shishime Toru continues Asian domination U60kg

This time it was Shishime Toru of Japan who became the sixth winner in a row from Asia U60kg. Shishime simply took over the gold from Takato Naohisa. Before him Ganbat and Sobirov also won this category in Bercy. The Japanese won 16 titles since 1977, one more than all Europeans together.

Only eleven seconds were necessary for the 2015 world bronze medallist Shishime Toru of Japan to score a first yuko to take the lead against Qingdao Grand Prix winner Ilgar Mushkiyev (AZE) in the final. It took four more minutes to see a second yuko written on the scoreboard, as again the Japanese scored with a left-handed uchi-mata. That was the end of the scoring before the final gong, as Shishime won his first Grand Slam title which was won by Takato Naohisa in October as the Japanese rotated their squad for Paris 2016.

The men’s lightest category featured 55 athletes which was a record entry in this category at the Paris Grand Slam.

In the first semi-final World Judo Masters bronze medallist Sharafuddin Lutfillaev (UZB) was thwarted by Mushkiyev (AZE) by a waza-ari as the former could only muster a yuko and was penalised on three occasions. In the second semi-final Havana Grand Prix bronze medallist Hovhannes Davtyan (ARM) was beaten by Tokyo Grand Slam bronze medallist Shishime by a yuko score.

The first bronze medal fight was won by world bronze medallist and top seed Kim Won Jin (KOR) who defeated Davtyan as his yuko was the only score of the contest. Davtyan was penalised three times as the South Korean was able to offer a solution questions posed by the Armenian. The second bronze medal fight of the men’s -60kg category Qingdao Grand Prix bronze medallist Walide Khyar (FRA) and Lutfillaev. After half of the fight had elapsed, both athletes counted a shido on the scoreboard. Only ranked 60 in the world, the 20-year-old Frenchman, who was bronze medallist at the last Junior World Championships, proved that he had perfectly transitioned into the senior division. Showing a perfect command of the bout despite his young age, Khyar pushed Lutfillaev to be penalised for a second time and then controlled the fight until the end to earn a huge ovation from the home crowd.