Tenth Showdown for Klimkait and Cysique

With three months and only three World Judo Tour events remaining before the Paris Olympic Games, the race for qualification is entering its climatic final stages and many of the 391 competitors will be looking to secure, or indeed cement, their Olympic places. The category -57kg is extremely competitive with two top candidates for gold.

No fewer than six of last year's top eight finishers at the Dushanbe Grand Prix 2023 are back again in 2024 hoping for further success. The gold medallist from last year, Shukurjon Aminova (UZB), is unseeded and faces an uphill battle, taking on fifth seed Enkhrillen Lkhagvatogoo (MGL) in round 1. The two bronze medallists, Veronica Toniolo (ITA) and Qi Cai (CHN) are seeded third and sixth, respectively, so could meet at the quarter-final stage.

The favourites though are unquestionably the top two seeds, Jessica Klimkait (CAN) and Sarah Leonie Cysique (FRA). The battle between Klimkait and her teammate Christa Deguchi (CAN) for Olympic qualification is going down to the wire once more, with Deguchi due to compete at the Qaqaqstan Barysy Grand Slam next week and both scheduled to compete at the Abu Dhabi World Championships a fortnight later.

Cysique has already been selected for the Games, so arrives in Dushanbe looking to improve her ranking and move into a seeded position. Since Cysique defeated Klimkait in the semi-final of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Klimkait has won all three of their encounters. Both made the final again this time, so will Cysique reverse her recent fortunes against Klimkait?

Watch all the nine head2head clashes so far between Klimkait and Cysique.