Haruka Funakubo fourth Japanese to take Paris gold U57kg

Japan's Haruka Funakubo once again demonstrated the skills of the Japanese athletes, especially the women, on the floor at the Paris Grand Slam. Everybody knows that going into ne-waza with Japanese competitors is always risky. In the final Funakubo quickly concluded on the floor against Caroline Fritze (GER), to win her first gold medal at this level.

Eteri Liparteliani (GEO) confirmed that she will be one of the strong competitors of the category in the years to come. After a defeat against French judoka Faiza Mokdar, she managed to concentrate again to go for bronze, while the French lost on the other side of the draw. The second bronze medal was won by another newcomer at this level, with Mina Libeer of Belgium.

The level of this edition of the Paris Grand Slam might not be as high as it can be when we are in the middle of Olympic qualification, nevertheless it remains very interesting. First of all, competing in Paris is always complicated and winning a medal here remains a good performance, but also we are discovering a lot of new names this weekend in the French capital. These new names will soon be regular on the World Judo Tour. So we shall remember Funakubo, Fritze, Liparteliani and Libeer.

It was the fourth gold medal for Japan U57kg in the Paris history. In 2001 Kie Kusakabe took gold, in 2010 it was the later Olympic Champion Kaori Matsumoto and Anzu Yamamoto was the previous winner for Japan in 2014.