Big victory for Marhinde Verkerk at Tokyo Grand Slam

World number six Marhinde Verkerk of the Netherlands defeated World Judo Masters bronze medallist Jeong Gyeong-Mi (KOR) to win U78kg gold at the Grand Slam in Japan. Asian Championships winner Jeong was caught with a sasae-tsurikomi-ashi for a waza-ari score after 75 seconds. Jeong received back-to-back shido penalties for passivity before Dutch star Verkerk was reprimanded with a shido for a false attack but that was insignificant as the first score proved decisive.

Vekerk ensured Japan would not have interest in the U78kg category as former Asian Championships bronze medallist Okamura Tomomi (JPN) suffered defeat on shido penalties after three indiscretions while her opponent was only penalised once. Jeong sealed her place in the final and denied the hosts a -78kg finalist when All Japan Judo Championships winner Sato Ruika (JPN) received four shido penalties to be disqualified with hansoku-make.

The first bronze medal was won by Okamura who was awarded victory over world number 10 Luise Malzahn after the European judoka received hansoku-make for inadvertently poking the eye of her opponent. The second bronze medal contest produced the same result as home judoka SATO bested Olympic silver medallist Kerstin Thiele in a bruising encounter. The German fighter scored first as a ko-uchi-gari after 30 seconds earned her a yuko. Thiele was penalised twice for passivity and, with a minute remaining, Sato surged into action and trapped her rival with a mune-gatame for ippon.