14 different nations lead IJF World Ranking

Due to the reduction of the points of the Grand Slam in Tyumen in 2016 the IJF World Ranking has some slight changes. In the women’s division, Larisa Ceric and Sarah Asahina swapped places (2-3) in the World Rank +78kg. U57kg Rafaela Silva swapped with Tsukasa Yoshida. Silva is now number two. No country has two leaders; fourteen different categories deliver 14 different leading nations.

In the men’s U90kg division, Axel Clerget moved up one place from 3 to 2 passing Khusen Khalmurzaev. All of last week's number ones are still in the lead. Mainly Russian and Japanese athletes got their good performances in 2016 downgraded. The current World Ranking will be taken as reference for the seeding at the European Open in Minsk this weekend. Europe is leading with eight athletes, Asia has four World Ranking leaders, and Pan-America just two.

In Minsk 100 points are for grabs, but more importantly, it is the last practice for the World Championships. In Belarus, world number one Maryna Slutskaya may face World number two Larisa Ceric (BIH) on Sunday.

The World Ranking will change again in advance of the World Championships at the end of August as the Olympic points will be reduced by 50%, which will deliver a new number one and some changes in the seeding for Budapest.