Preview U63kg Tashkent: Horikawa may be the dark horse

The U63kg division used to be dominated by three players: Yarden Gerbi (ISR), Tina Trstenjak (SLO) and Clarisse Agbegnenou (FRA), who made that category one of the most exciting to watch. Then Gerbi retired and it was down to just Trstenjak and Agbegnenou. But both of them are not competing in Tashkent, which leaves the field wide open, with no clearly dominant player expected to sweep the category.

British Lucy Renshall is the number one seed U63kg, so she could face Katharina Haecker (8) in the quarter final if she can stand Megumi Horikawa who is in the same pool with Haecker. In this pool also Kerem Primo (sister of Gefen). Andreja Leski of Slovenia is in a tough pool with former Paris winner Barbara Timo and Anja Obradovic (bronze medallist in 2021). Other surprises may come from Koreans Lee and Kim. Kim is in a pool with Beauchmin Pinard (seeded) and Laura Fazliu, Europe’s silver medallist in Sofia and Iva Oberan. Manon Deketer of France is in the pool with last year’s bronze medallists Sanne Vermeer (NED) among the 41 women.

Current top players in this category include Lucy Renshall (GBR) and Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (CAN) but if we had to place a bet, we’d go with Megumi Horikawa (JPN).

You could call Horikawa someone who had peaked early but that wouldn’t be very accurate. You could also call her a late bloomer but that wouldn’t be very accurate either.

Under the name Megumi Tsugane, she won the U63kg gold at the 2012 Tokyo Grand Slam at the age of 17. This was no small feat as that competition featured Brazil’s Rafaela Silva (BRA), who was then toying with the U63kg division, as well as Agbegnenou and Gerbi.

Then, inexplicably, she failed to win another IJF World Tour gold medal for the next 10 years. Horikawa finally broke through again this year at the Tel Aviv Grand Slam where she won gold. She followed that up with another gold medal at the Hungary Grand Slam, as if to prove the Tel Aviv gold was no fluke.

Horikawa is clearly on a roll and the momentum will stand her in good stead in Tashkent. We think she is the top prospect there, but there is plenty of competition with Paris winner Barbara Timo (POR), World bronze medallist Sanne Vermeer (NED) and Israel’s Inbal Shemesh to name a few.