The upcoming final day of the Dushanbe Grand Slam 2024 promises to be a thrilling conclusion to an outstanding event, especially with the potential rematch between Temur Rakhimov and Teddy Riner in the +100kg category. Their previous encounter, which ended abruptly with Riner's impressive victory at the World Judo Championships in Doha 2023, left spectators eager for a rematch. Rakhimov, fueled by the desire to avenge his quick defeat, will have the opportunity to do so on his home turf if both athletes advance to the final as the top seeds ..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

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

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

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

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 ..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

In the highly anticipated U57 final at the Dushanbe Grand Slam, Jessica Klimkait of Canada and Sarah Leonie Cysique of France faced off in a showdown that held significant implications for their Olympic aspirations ..read more