The Grand Slam of Dushanbe U63kg was a target for Lubjana Piovesana of Austria who began at the top of the sheet but didn’t have an easy time of it. In the final, the number one seed never looked to be in danger. A single waza-ari from a well timed left-sided seoi-otoshi was enough to seal the victory and a gold medal worth 1000 points in the penultimate Gand slam of this Olympic cycle for the Austrian. Gold goes to Piovesana and silver to Neutral Athlete Dali Liluashvili (AIN ..read more

The gold medal of the men’s U81kg at the Grand Slam in Dushanbe was won by Japan’s Yoshito Hojo. Hojo, without any major references yet on the international circuit, apart from a victory at the very beginning of the season in Portugal, including wins against Saeid Mollaei (AZE), Joonhwan Lee (KOR) and Vedat Albayrak (TUR) all on the same day. Today the gold medal was again for Hojo, handed out by double Olympic champion Shohei Ono ..read more

2023 World champion Nils Stump (SUI) recently returned to competition after a shoulder surgery and was five months out, but made a great comeback in Dushanbe at the Grand Slam santching the gold medal in the U73kg category. Home fighter Behruzi Khojazoda (TJK), who won silver last year at home, qualified for the final against Stump ..read more

Not only did Fabienne KOCHER take the gold in the -52kg on day one of the Dushanbe Grand Slam, her first World Tour medal in two years, but another Swiss athlete was back on the podium on day two. In his classic style, Nils STUMP (SUI) was finally out of his rut, following his world title win a year ago, Stump has been missing the podium, yet nothing was stopping him in Dushanbe, claiming the second gold for Team Switzerland. It wasn’t a straight forward day for him either with stiff opponents, and in the final took on both Behruzi KHOJAZODA (TJK) and the home crowd, who had half filled t ..read more

Michaela Polleres of Austria demonstrated exceptional performance throughout day 2 in Dushanbe, swiftly defeating Willems of Belgium, Gercsak of Hungary, and Pogacnik of Slovenia to advance to the final. Despite facing opponents in good form, Polleres remained unrivaled, maintaining her position as the number one seed and aiming to conclude her day with the same status ..read more

A magnificent seven of the top eight finishers at -63kg at the Dushanbe Grand Prix 2023 are back in Tajikistan once more looking to match, or indeed better, their performances second time round, but with only 14 world ranking places separating the eight seeded players, there is no guarantee of success for any of them ..read more

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially unveiled the Refugee Olympic Team for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Among the 36 athletes selected from various countries and backgrounds, six are judoka who have been making their mark on the World Judo Tour ..read more

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 ..read more

A magnificent seven of the top eight finishers at -63kg at the Dushanbe Grand Prix 2023 are back in Tajikistan once more looking to match, or indeed better, their performances second time round, but with only 14 world ranking places separating the eight seeded players, there is no guarantee of success for any of them ..read more

After shoulder surgery and 5 months out of competition, the 2023 world champion at -73kg Nils Stump (SUI) made his highly anticipated return at the Antalya Grand Slam 2024, where he suffered an early exit in round 2. Despite this, the Swiss man arrives in Dushanbe as the top seed and will be hoping to get back to his best and move closer to a seeded position in the Olympic rankings ..read more