Haruka Funakubo at the top of the mountain with gold in Tokyo

Haruka Funakubo and Tsukasa Yoshida qualified for the of the Grand Slam in Tokyo final for women U57kg. It was with a right-left opposition that the final began and it was during the first sequence on the ground that Haruka Funakubo quickly took over and pinned her opponent for an ippon synonymous with victory. Second at the last World Championships in Tashkent and now holder of four grand slam gold medals,

Haruka Funakubo scored a lot of points for the Olympic qualification. Silver medal went to Tsukasa Yoshida who has won the World Judo Masters in 2021 and 2018, and was world champion in 2018, but this time gold for Funakubo.

The best Georgian chance was therefore undoubtedly Eteri Liparteliani, the number one seed of the tournament. However, we can never repeat it enough that competing in Japan is particularly difficult because, at every turn, there can be a Japanese athlete hiding, one that we did not expect. For Liparteliani it was Tsukasa Yoshida. For the Georgian champion, couldn't resist Yoshida's precise and unstoppable ground work and was pinned for ippon.

Canadian Christa Deguchi lives in Japan., she was the winner in Baku a few weeks ago and world champion in 2019, here in Tokyo, but never seemed to be on the pace and she left the tournament by the back door, losing in golden score against Akari Amori (JPN). There is still work to be done for Deguchi to be back at her best level, the one she had before the Tokyo Olympics, which saw Jessica Klimkait being preferred to represent Canada.