Teddy Riner in starting grid at Grand Prix Zagreb

France's Teddy Riner will be in action at this weekend's International Judo Federation (IJF) Grand Prix in Zagreb, just weeks after winning the ninth world title of his career. Prior to the recent World Championships in Budapest, Riner had not competed since clinching his second Olympic gold medal in the over-100 kilograms category at last year's Games in Rio de Janeiro.

He remained as formidable as ever, though, and maintained an unbeaten run which stretches back to 2010, as he threw Brazilian opponent David Moura for ippon during the golden score period in the heavyweight final.

The last judoka to beat him was Japan's Daiki Kamikawa, who ousted the Frenchman in the openweight final at the 2010 World Championships in Tokyo. Kamikawa is in the starting grid, so Riner might meet him in the final.

Riner will close the Croatian judo festival and he will probably be the most awaited judoka by the public and by the media on Sunday. It is always something extraordinary when the French giant makes the trip and once again the show will be at the rendezvous on Sunday at the 'Dom Sportova'. The question is: who will take the other medals? It is not an affront to other athletes to ask this question, as Teddy Riner's margin seems insurmountable. However, a competition always remains full of uncertainties and each match will have to be played to the maximum and it will be necessary to follow every minute of the competition, and... in judo, anything is possible.

A number of World Championships and Olympic medallists are expected at the sixth Grand Prix of the season and the fifth edition of the event in Croatia.

The Azeri pair of Rustam Orujov and Elmar Gasimov, both silver medallists at Rio 2016, will be in action.

Azerbaijan's Elkhan Mammadov, the 2013 world champion, is also scheduled to compete as well as Great Britain's bronze medallist in Budapest, Nekoda Smythe-Davis.

All the attention of the category U48kg on Friday will be on the return to competition of the Olympic champion Paula Pareto (ARG), who dedicated herself to her job as a doctor over the past months but who nevertheless continued to train for her comeback. Pareto will be confronted by the new generation of athletes who dream of Tokyo 2020. She is still motivated even if she has already checked all the boxes (world champion and Olympic champion) and that she is 31 years old.