Top seed Polleres is the Player to Beat U70kg

Leading the way at U70kg in Dushanbe is Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist Michaela Polleres (AUT), followed closely by 2022 world silver medallist Lara Cvjetko (CRO). Polleres comes off the back of victory in the Antalya Grand Slam 2024, where she defeated both the third and eighth seeds here in the Tajikistan capital, Giovanna Scoccimarro (GER) and Sabina Gercsak (HUN).

Just last week, Cvjetko secured her first medal at a Senior European Championships, taking bronze in Zagreb. Polleres was the victor in their only previous encounter at the Baku Grand Slam 2022, so should they meet in the final, Cvjetko will be eager to reverse the result.

The British duo of Katie-Jemima Yeats-Brown and Kelly Petersen Pollard are separated by a mere 39 points in the Olympic rankings - there are up to 1000 points on offer at grand slams – so a favourable result for either will make a big difference to their chance of being selected. They are seeded sixth and seventh, respectively and both finished in the top five here last year.

There are also several unseeded athletes with Olympic aspirations who could be a threat to the seeded players’ supremacy, including Upper Austria Grand Prix silver medallist Irene Pedrotti (ITA), Antalya Grand Slam 2024 silver medallist Tais Pina (POR), Dushanbe Grand Prix 2023 silver medallist Katarina Sobierajska (POL) and recent Asian Championships bronze medallist Yingying Feng (CHN). All four sit outside the Olympic qualification places currently but could make significant strides towards their ultimate goal with a good performance in this event.