With the Olympic judo spots already decided no Americans felt it was worth traveling to central Russia for the grand slam event in Tyumen this weekend. The same story was true last weekend in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for the judo grand prix event. Three American women had competed in the Mongolian event last year and two men in the Russian event but the incentives are a bit different this year with a month to go until Rio.
The next Judo Grand Prix event is after the Olympics in Zagreb, Croatia from September 23rd through the 25th. The judo competition in Rio will take place from Saturday, August 6th through Friday, August 12th with the US judoka competing each day from Sunday through Thursday.
2012 gold medalist Kayla Harrison won her first gold in three Judo Grand Prix/Slam events this year as she took top honors in the women’s -78kg division in Budapest, Hungary. Harrison needed 11 seconds to get an ippon over Slovenia’s Klara Apotekar in the quarterfinals but over three minutes to score a similar result over the Netherlands’ Karen Stevenson in the semifinals. Harrison won the final over Slovenia’s Anamari Velensek with only a yuko on the board. Harrison has now won a gold, silver, and bronze between her three events this year in Budapest, Havana, and Paris.
Things didn’t go so well for the two American men. Travis Stevens competed in the men’s -90kg division instead of his traditional -81kg division, except he didn’t really compete. He was entered in the draw but did not take to the mat against Hungary’s Gabor Ver. Colton Brown had a first round bye but lost to Great Britain’s Max Stewart on a yuko.
The next Judo Grand Prix event is in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia next weekend starting Friday and running through Sunday.
2012 bronze medalist Marti Malloy seems to be in good form with less than two months remaining until the Olympics in Rio as she won a bronze medal in the women’s -57kg division this weekend at the Judo Grand Prix event in Budapest, Hungary. Malloy has now won three medals in her three grand prix/grand slam events this year. Malloy needed just six seconds to score an ippon in her quarterfinal match against Sappho Coban of Germany but lost her semifinal to Japan’s Momo Tamaoki on shido penalties 2-1. Tamaoki went on to win the gold. Malloy won bronze by defeating another German, Johanna Mueller, on shido penalties 1-0 in her bronze medal match.
Angelica Delgado had her most successful grand prix event of the year winning her opener with a waza-ari against Uzbekistan’s Diyora Keldiyorova to reach the quarterfinals. A yuko allowed Romania’s Larisa Florian to advance to the semifinals and Delgado lost on a yuko again in the repechage bracket to France’s Astride Gneto. It was the first finish inside the top 32 for Delgado this year. Adonis Diaz also posted a season best finish reaching the round of 16, though it was from a bye. Diaz might have gone further but he ran into eventual gold medalist Dai Aoki of Japan and that match lasted only 17 seconds before Aoki had secured an ippon.
Sunday World Masters gold medalists Travis Stevens and Kayla Harrison, will compete in the men’s -81kg division and the women’s -78kg division. Also competing in the men’s -90kg division will be Colton Brown who finished seventh in the last grand prix event in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Six Americans, including World Masters gold medalists Travis Stevens and Kayla Harrison, will be competing at the Judo Grand Prix event in Budapest, Hungary this weekend. Stevens and Harrison will both have to wait until Sunday to compete while on Saturday Adonis Diaz in the men’s -60kg division and two Olympians, Angelica Delgado and Marti Malloy, will compete in the women’s -52kg and -57kg division respectively. Diaz has yet to advance past the round of 32 in two grand prix events this year and Delgado has yet to break that mark in three events. Malloy has had more success though and won her only grand prix event of the year back in Havana.
The best grand prix finish by an American since the first event of the year came this weekend and it wasn’t by whom you might expect. Making his first grand prix appearance since the 2016 opener in Havana Colton Brown won his opening two matches to become the first American to reach the quarterfinals since Havana. Brown had an ippon to beat Kazakhstan’s Meirambek Zhangabay and defeated Ukraine’s Vadym Synyavsky with a waza-ari. Brown was finally defeated in the quarterfinals by Azerbaijan’s Mammadali Mehdiyev. Brown was penalized four times with a shido in the match leading to an automatic victory for Mehdiyev. Brown had a repechage match against Russia’s Mihael Zgank but lost via ippon to miss out on a bronze medal match.
No other Americans got wins on Sunday. Mark Fletcher and Ajax Tadehara, both in the men’s -100kg division, lost their openers. Tadehara lost to Jason Koster of New Zealand on a yuko while Fletcher lost to Estonia’s Grigori Minaskin on a quick ippon. Fletcher was competing in his first grand prix event of 2016. Over on the women’s side Nina Cutro-Kelly in the +78kg division lost her opener via ippon to Lithuania’s Santa Pakenyte.
The next judo grand prix stop isn’t until June 25th in Budapest, Hungary. In the meantime the prestigious Masters tournament takes place in Guadalajara, Mexico starting May 27th.
Two Americans got wins on Saturday but it was Hannah Martin advancing to the round of 16 for the first time in a grand prix event this year that had the highest finish of the three Americans competing. Martin took care of Kazakhstan’s Azhar Salykova via ippon in her opener to reach the round of 16 for the first time in four 2016 grand prix events. A tough matchup with Canada’s Stefanie Tremblay for a quarterfinal spot ended up being decided by Martin having more shido penalties. three to one. Competing in the same women’s -63kg division as Martin, Leilani Akiyama lost to three yukos from Brazil’s Ketleyn Quadros.
Over on the men’s side Nicholas Delpopolo opened with the narrowest of wins over Portugal’s Nuno Saraiva. The only thing on the scorecard at the end of the match was a single shido penalty for Saraiva, sending the American through. His next match was decided by shidos as well but this time Delpopolo was on the wrong end 2-1 to Egypt’s Mohamed Mohyeldin.
The final day of competition on Sunday will feature four more Americans. Colton Brown is in the men’s -90kg division while two American men, Mark Fletcher and Ajax Tadehara, compete in the -100kg division. On the women’s side Nina Cutro-Kelly takes part in the +78kg division. Tadehara has a round of 16 appearance earlier this year and Cutro-Kelly was seventh in the first grand prix event of 2016.
No success on the first day of the judo grand prix event in Almaty, Kazakhstan as the only American competing, Aaron Kunihiro, went the distance but was defeated by Azerbaijan’s Vugar Shirinli by a waza-ari. Nicholas Delpopolo will go for the US on Saturday in the men’s -73kg division. Like Kunihiro he has yet to advance past the round of 32 this year. Leilani Akiyama and Hannah Martin, both in the -63kg division. Akiyama made the round of 16 in two of her four grand prix events so far in 2016. She is the only American to compete at every grand prix and grand slam stop this year.
After disappointing results in Baku in the judo grand slam event last weekend the Americans will be hoping to find more success this weekend. No US women will compete on Friday but Aaron Kunihiro will be competing in the men’s -60kg division. Kunihiro is yet to advance past the round of 32 in his three grand prix competitions so far this season.
The US found no more success on the final day of the Judo grand slam event in Baku than they had on Saturday as they once again went 0-3. In the women’s +78kg division Nina Cutro-Kelly was defeated by an ippon from Ksenia Chibisova of Russia in less than 90 seconds. None of the four US women won a match in Baku. In the men’s -90kg division Colton Brown was defeated by Patryk Ciechomski of Poland by a waza-ari while in the -100kg division Ajax Tadehara lost to Ramziddin Sayidov of Uzbekistan via ippon.
The next Judo Grand Slam event will be in Tyumen, Russia starting July 16th. The next Grand Prix stop (slightly lesser prestige) is next weekend in Almaty, Kazakhstan May 13th-15th.
The US competitors didn’t find any success on the second day of the Judo grand slam event in Baku as they went 0-3. In the women’s -63kg division Leilani Akiyama lost to Franciska Szabo of Hungary on a waza-ari while Hannah Martin was defeated by Alice Schlesinger of Great Britain via an ippon. It’s worth noting that Schlesinger did go on to win the gold. In the men’s -73kg division Nicholas Delpopolo was defeated by Georgios Azoidis of Greece by a Yuko in the first round.
Sunday’s final day of competition will feature three more Americans. Nina Cutro-Kelly will take part in the women’s +78kg division. On the men’s side Colton Brown takes part in the -90kg division and Ajax Tadehara competes in the -100kg division.