Olympic Games judo draw for women delivers some clashes

The draw of the Olympic Games Judo Tournament delivered a couple of interesting first round battles. Judo fans watched closely to the positions of some of the non-seeded athletes such as Shohei Ono who came into the pool with Rustam Orujov, the number one seed. Orujov and Ono were in the 2016 Olympic Games final U73kg, a contest that could happen in the quarter finals again. We watch into the women's draw first.

Another tough battle can happen in the category U48kg where Shirine Boukli and Daria Bilodid may meet in the second round if Boukli can overcome Serbian Milica Nikolic. Funa Tonaki is in the same pool with Paula Pareto the 2016 Olympic Champion, but both are seeded and can only meet in the quarter final.

U52kg one of the big clashes is between Majlinda Kelmendi, the reigning Olympic Champion against Reka Pupp of Hungary, another top athlete in this class. Spanish world championships finalist Anna Perez Box is opposed to World bronze medallist Fabienne Kocher from Switzerland. Top favourite Uta Abe will likely fight Larissa Pimenta of Brazil in round two.

U57kg home favourite Tsukasa Yoshida will probably fight 2019 European Champion Daria Mezhetskaia (ROC) in Yoshida’s first bout at the Olympics.

In the pool with Judo queen Clarisse Agbegnenou U63kg will Dutch Juul Franssen (2019 world bronze medallist) fight this year’s world bronze medallist Anja Obradovic. British Lucy Renshall will have to fight Miku Tashiro in the first match.

No spectacular surprises in the class U70kg where the favourites have good positions to qualify for the quarter finals. World Champion Barbara Matic though will probably fight Barbara Timo of Portugal who took world silver in 2019.

Japan’s ground specialist Shori Hamada will fight European Champion Beata Pacut of Poland in her first match.

Heavyweight and number one seed Idalys Ortiz may face a tough battle in her first contest, likely against Rochele Nunes from Portugal who is on good form. French favourite Romane Dicko is in the pool with Maria Suelen Altheman and Akira Sone will probably fight Raz Hershko (ISR) in round two. The lightweights will start their Olympic Games on Saturday.