Julia Tolofua fights back tears after shock win

French outsider Julia Tolofua was the surprise heavyweight winner on the last day in Tbilisi as the little-known +78kg fighter defeated Junior World Championships silver medallist Beatriz Souza (BRA) in the final. In her first IJF final Tolofua took the contest to the world number nine who was thrown with an o-soto-gari for a waza-ari score and that was the only time the scoreboard was summoned.

The race to be France’s number one female heavyweight has now been blown wide open with Anne Fatoumata M Bairo (FRA) only managing fifth-place today while heavyweight starlet and 2018 Tbilisi Grand Prix winner Romane Dicko (FR) still to compete since her win a year ago due to a lengthy run of injuries. 

In the first semi-final Ekaterinburg Grand Slam bronze medallist Rochele Nunes (POR) lost out to Tolofua by a waza-ari score. In the second semi-final Souza defeated Ekaterinburg Grand Slam silver medallist Anne Fatoumata M Bairo (FRA) who was trapped in osaekomi for 10 seconds after being thrown for a waza-ari score.

The first bronze medal was awarded to The Hague Grand Prix winner Maryna Slutskaya (BLR) who tapped put M Bairo on the ground to claim her tenth Grand Prix medal.

The second bronze medal was won by Nunes who dismissed world number 17 Galyna Tarasova (UKR) with an efficient makikomi and a lunging o-uchi-gari which won over the crowd who celebrated with the former Brazil international.