Two Americans took part in the first day of the Judo Grand Prix event in Samsun, both against home-country Turkish opposition, and neither were able to get a win. Angelica Delgado lost to Irem Korkmaz in the -52kg division with the only scoring a waza-ari for Korkmaz. In the -60kg division Aaron Kunihiro didn’t last very long with his match over within a minute as eventual champion Bekir Ozlu scored an early ippon.

Saturday’s competition will see four more Americans take to the mat. In the -73kg division Nicholas Delpopolo will be starting off in the round of 32 against Georgios Azoidis of Greece while in the -81kg division Travis Stevens, who finished second earlier in the year in Havana, will start in the round of 32 against yet to be determined opposition. Delpopolo has beaten Azoidis in all three previous meetings.

Two US Women will be competing in the -63kg division, both starting in the round of 32. Hannah Martin will take on Swede Mia Hermansson while Leilani Akiyama, who reached the round of 16 in both Dusseldorf and Tbilisi earlier this year, takes on Ivana Komlosiova of Slovakia. Martin has met Hermansson on four occasions, losing all four, including a round of 32 matchup in Samsun last year.

The matches begin at 3 AM ET with the finals scheduled to begin at 10 AM ET. Free live streaming is available at ippon.tv.