Chinese Ma Sisi grabs first Grand Slam gold medal

Chinese judoka MA Sisi made her Grand Slam breakthrough in the best style possible as she claimed heavyweight gold in Russia. MA defeated Tokyo Grand Slam winner Inamori Nami (JPN) in the final despite the Japanese judoka making a bright start with a robust harai-goshi attack which almost opened the scoring. Inamori pressed with a left-sided drop seoi-nage effort but it took three minutes and 58 seconds for the deadlock to be dramatically broken as MA scored a yuko to capture the gold.

In the first semi-final contest MA surpassed teammate World Judo Masters winner YU Song (CHN). MA edged her colleague by the only score of the contest which was a yuko from a harai-makikomi to reach her first Grand Slam final at the expense of her training partner who was sent into the bronze medal contest.

In the second semi-final World Judo Masters bronze medallist Franziska Konitz (GER) lost out to INAMORI by ippon with 36 seconds left on the clock.

The first bronze medal was claimed by European Games silver medallist Jasmin Kuelbs (GER) who had to stop the medal ambitions of colleague and world number three Konitz on shido penalties. The second bronze medal contest was won by YU who showed the power of China in the heavyweight division as she defeated Budapest Grand Prix silver medallist Nihel Cheikh Rouhou ROUHOU (TUN) also on shido penalties.