Theresa Stoll gives the home crowd golden end of first day in Düsseldorf

International judo has a few new stars. Theresa Stoll became Germany's youngest ever winner in the IJF World Tour. Topping that, 16 year-old Uta Abe is the first ever under-17 judoka to capture IJF Tour gold. The Japanese youngster was last year’s youngest medallist at the Grand Slam in Tokyo and she continues to rocket herself into the World Ranking, claiming 700 points.

Women U48kg

French Amandine Buchard built up her comeback in the IJF World Tour with care and succeeded to reach the final U52kg. Her opponent was 16-year old Uta Abe who struck in the first minute with wazari. Abe was last year’s youngest medallist in the IJF World Tour and continued her success and has written history being the youngest ever winner in the IJF World Tour, which started in 2008. Nice detail that the number three in the list is her brother Hifumi Abe.

Last year’s winner, Ai Shishime of Japan, bested Gili Cohen (ISR) in the first bronze battle. Larisa Florian surprised Eleudis Valentim of Brazil by ippon with a splendid take over and great kuzushi after 75 seconds in the match.

Women U52kg

2015 World Junior Champion Funa Tonaki of Japan won the gold medal in Dusseldorf. In the final U48kg Tonaki showed her superior groundwork and controlled Clement by osaekomi within a minute. It’s the fourth time a Japanese judoka won gold in Düsseldorf in this category. Tonaki won her third World Tour title; she was also successful in Qingdao (2015) and Tyumen (2016). Noa Minsker threw Milica Nikolic for wazari and took the bronze. The second bronze went to Romanian Monica Ungureanu, who caught Melodie Vaugarny of France by ippon after a minute.

Women U57kg

The German team saved the best for last as Theresa Stoll reached the final U57kg, but her opponent was the number one of the World Sumiya Dorjsuren. The Mongolian was impressive as always in Düsseldorf. In 2014 and 2015 she lost the final here, but this time there was no way she would allow Stoll to beat her in her third final...or was there?. Stoll is not an easy opponent - quite tall and tough - and she gave a really good match. Stoll beat Rogic in the semi final and Dorjsuren defeated Nae Udaka. After four minutes in the match there was still no score, only one penalty for Stoll. She gained hope after such a terrific four minutes. Stoll showed she is in top form as keeping the World number one at a distance is a performance on its own. Dorjsuren had a few seoi-nage attempts but couldn't get through the defense of the talented Stoll. Forty seconds into the golden score, it was Stoll who countered the sloppy attack of Dorjsuren and scored an amazing point. It was the best surprise of the day: the first ever gold for Germany in this category U57kg in Düsseldorf.

Stoll: "I am overwhelmed, I don't know what happened, but I won. The crowd stimulated me, when I walked into the Arena, everybody is cheering and it was amazing, but I don't realise it yet. Really... am I the youngest ever winner for Germany in the IJF World Tour....pffff... wow..."

Jovana Rogic scored wazari for a left seoi nage against Anastasiia Konkina (RUS) in their bronze medal bout and the Serbian won the medal. 2014 World Champion Nae Udaka of Japan showed her efficiency in 40 seconds against Daria Mezhetckaia (RUS) with o-soto-gari and won the second bronze medal.

Men U60kg

In the final U60kg it was 2014 World Champion Ganbat Boldbaatar from Mongolia who led the match against Amiran Papinashvili. The Georgian former European Champion couldn’t find a solution for the lock on the match created by Ganbat and had to be satisfied with silver. Ganbat won his 23rd World Cup medal and eighth victory, seven of them in the IJF Tour.

Phelipe Pelim of Brazil, who impressed today with a victory over World Champion Yeldos Smetov, was opposed by former World Junior Champion Fran Garrigos (ESP) for bronze.  No score in regular time and the 27-year old Brazilian won the battle for bronze by ippon after 6 minutes of fighting, winning his second IJF Tour medal in Düsseldorf. Amartuvshin Dashdavaa  (MGL) defeated Ashley McKenzie (GBR) by ippon after three minutes.

Men U66kg

The final U66kg was between 2016 European Champion Vazha Margvelashvili of Georgia and Japanese Norihito Isoda. Isoda is relatively unknown, but was a highly successful Cadet and became vice-World Cadet champion in 2011. In Düsseldorf however he developed fast and progressed via fine victories over more experienced judoka Mariac, Chibana, Dovdon and Shmailov. The final against Margvelashvili was equal for the first four minutes, but 8 seconds in the golden score the Georgian hit with a uchimata, enough for a score. It was his third medal in a row and first gold in Düsseldorf. Last year Margvelashvili won the Grand Prix in Tbilisi and obviously the European title in Kazan. Two weeks ago he won bronze in Paris.

Russian Kamal Khan-Magomedov took a spectacular bronze medal when he outclassed Baruch Shmailov in style. With a classic harai goshi he off-balanced the Israeli judoka a minute into the match. Tal Flicker had already won a bronze medal for Israel in his match against Sergiu Oleinic (POR).

German victories at the Grand prix in Düsseldorf

Stoll is the youngest winner ever for Germany in the IJF World Tour.