Big battle among lightweights at Masters in Guadalajara

The competition at the IJF Masters in Guadalajara will be most severe in the light weight categories. In the category for women U48kg eight of the 10 judoka from the IJF World Ranking will be fighting in Mexico this week. Only Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh (KAZ) and Irina Dolgova (RUS) fail in the field. Urantsetseg Munkhbat is ranked first in the top field which can give an insight in the shape of the athletes.

Also the category U52kg will be strong with again 8 of the top 10 women present. Double World Champion Majlinda Kelmendi (KOS) and Japanese Ai Shishime are missing. Andreea Chitu (ROU) is first seeded followed by Erika Miranda. World Champion Misato Nakamura will be back in action. The Japanese champion won her last international event at the Grand Slam in Tokyo.

The toughest division in the men will be U60kg with an Asian top three consisting of Ganbat, Kim and Takato all in Guadalajara. Interesting will be the last battles for Rio in some of the high level countries like Uzbekistan, Brazil and France.

A big miss is the team of Georgia without the two top players Shavdatuashvili and Tatalashvili who battle for one place U73kg. The men’s category U90kg has a somewhat weaker field led by Japanese World bronze medallist Mashu Baker and where World number 17 Tiago Camilo is still seeded among the best 8 as only three athletes from the top 10 (Baker, Nyman, Gonzalez) appear. With a wider spread field interesting points can be picked up in this category and cause some changes.

Some battles seemed to be decided in advance. Germany sends only three athletes including U57kg women Roper and Waechter, but without Maresch/Wieczerzak and Frey/Peters. For Russia only Kamal Khan-Magomedov is in Mexico, not Baku winner Mikhail Pulyaev. Only high ranked Alan Khubetsov participates where either Khalmurzaev or Nifontov are expected to fight in Rio. An interesting battle can still be between Bisultanov and Khaibulaev U100kg.

The French team is without European champion Automne Pavia where Helene Receveaux will fight.

In the U78kg category Dutch Marhinde Verkerk isn’t fighting and will be comfortably at home with her ticket where Guusje Steenhuis finishes her season early in May.