Miku Tashiro back in the picture winning Kodokan Cup

At the Kodokan Cup in Chiba the women fought for the medals. The Kodokan is considered an important tournament to get access to international competitions such as the Grand Slam in Tokyo, the last Grand Slam this year. The most eyecatching name on the podium was Miku Tashiro, in fact with Clarisse Agbegnenou and Tina Trstenjak the leading women in international judo in the U63kg category. Since they left the international scene it left a huge gap where Megumi Horikawa filled in the world title.

The 28-year old Tashiru was the oldest female winner today. She was fifth at the Olympic Games in Rio and ninth at a disappointing Games in Tokyo after being the silver medallist at the World Championships in 2018 and 2019. She is a former Junior World Champion and should be considered to come back for a third Olympic Games qualification. On Saturday’s competition Miku Tashiro defeated Seiko Watanabe in the final. She will now get a spot in the team for the Grand Slam in Tokyo in December. After the Olympics, she had surgery to fix the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. At one point, she considered retiring but after rehabilitation, decided to return to the tatami. Tashiro didn’t just win the gold medal but won every one of her matches by ippon. Her incredible comeback, over a year after the Olympics, moved her to tears.

In the category U57kg it was Baku winner Momo Tamaoki who captured the tile. She defeated former world champion Tsukasa Yoshida in the final. 

The Kodokan Cup serves as the first qualifying tournament for Japan’s national team for the Doha World Championships, to be held in May next year.

It’s a tough competition and in the lightweight division the world championships contenders didn’t fight tough. Their gap was captured by GS Baku winner Rina Tatsukawa who on the class U48kg against Kano Miyaki. Tatsukawa also won the competition in 2020 and is now added to the selection for the Grand Slam in Tokyo.

Less familiar are the names U52kg with Kisumi Omori taking gold against Hikari Yokota and Ryoko Takeda and Chishima Maeda took bronze. Maeda was more a favourite for the gold as well as former Grand Slam winner Masako Doi who ended with a fifth place.

The women U70kg class hosted smaller international names such as Moka Kuwagata who won gold and Yukiko Uno who took silver. The strong category U78kg was for Paris silver medallist in 2021 Rika Takayama in her final against Mao Izumi, also Grand Slam winner in 2019 in Ekaterinburg. Takayama prolonged her title in Chiba as she won in 2020 as well.

World team Champion in 2021 Maya Akiba captured the gold in the women’s heavyweight class against former Junior world champion Hikaru Kodama. Ruri Takahashi and Nami Inamori finished with bronze, so that category had a good roster.

While the first day of the Kodokan Cup has just ended, the selection committee of the Japanese Judo Federation (AJJF) has announced the names of the twenty-eight Japanese fighters for the Tokyo Grand Slam ( December 3-4). Remember that the judokas present at the world championships in Uzbekistan and the medalists at the Asian championships were automatically selected for this Grand Slam.