Japan took home three gold medals on the opening day of the Qingdao Grand Prix, part of the World Judo Tour circuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their first gold came in the men\u2019s -60kg through Hayato Kondo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final was a dynamic affair between Hayato and world medallist Lee Harim of Korea. Unfortunately neither could make the space needed to introduce a decisive winning technique but both gave what they could to neutralise the other and edge a lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The battle was waged well by both, defensive and offensive skills on show but it was decided on penalties in golden score, the gold heading to Japan and the silver to Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The women\u2019s \u2013 52kg category seemed to belong to Japan\u2019s Rin Takeuchi from her first bow on to the tatami. That was her plan and she stuck to it ensuring the gold would be hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Takeuchi beat Korean Kim Minjeong with her relentless hunt for ippon. And the decisive ippon came from a round-the-waist grip, taking Kim backwards with no chance to regain her balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the women\u2019s -57kg, China\u2019s Jia Zhou arrived at her first World Judo Tour gold. However, Japan\u2019s Momo Tamaoki, was far more experienced than Zhou, and looked dominant from the outset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the halfway point she rolled through Zhou with a kata-guruma, not typically Japanese in style, logging a waza-ari which she followed quickly on the floor and held for the second waza-ari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China collected their only gold of the day through Wenna Zhuang of China who beat three-time Pan American champion Mary Dee Vargas Ley of Chile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her first Grand Prix final, Dee Vargass had looked prepared but made a catastrophic error in the opening exchange. She reaped the supporting leg of Zhuang from behind and received a direct disqualification. Vargas Ley finally has her medal but it is a silver and that\u2019s not what she wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the men\u2019s -66kg, double world medallist Baskhuu Yondonperenlei beat 2025 world medallist Obid Dzhebov. This was the 31-year-old\u2019s 12th grand slam medal but only his second gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Final Results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men -60 kg<\/strong>: 1. KONDO Hayato (JPN); 2. LEE Harim (KOR); 3. NAKAMURA Taiki (JPN); 3. BYAMBASUREN Sukhbat (MGL); 5. TUVSHINTUR Tumenjargal (MGL); 5. FECZKO Csanad (HUN); 7. QUVATOV Muhammadsoleh (TJK); 7. ANDRASI Marton (HUN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men -66 kg<\/strong>: 1. YONDONPERENLEI Baskhuu (MGL); 2. DZHEBOV Obid (TJK); 3. TANAKA Ryoma (JPN); 3. KIM Channyeong (KOR); 5. XUE Ziyang (CHN); 5. ZHANG Shuai (CHN); 7. BOTABAY Nurmukhamet (KAZ); 7. LIN Chong-You (TPE)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women -48 kg<\/strong>: 1. ZHUANG Wenna (CHN); 2. VARGAS LEY Mary Dee (CHI); 3. GANBAATAR Narantsetseg (MGL); 3. BOUKLI Shirine (FRA); 5. LEE Kyeongha (KOR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women -52 kg<\/strong>: 1. TAKEUCHI Rin (JPN); 2. KIM Minjeong (KOR); 3. HWANG Suryeon (KOR); 3. GYERTYAS Roza (HUN); 5. BAYANMUNKH Uranzaya (MGL); 5. JIANG Xiuzhi (CHN); 7. KIM Won Gum (PRK)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women -57 kg<\/strong>: 1. TAMAOKI Momo (JPN); 2. ZHOU Jia (CHN); 3. LKHAGVASUREN Sosorbaram (MGL); 3. KIM Hyon A (PRK); 5. LIU Shuang (CHN); 5. KIM Juhee (KOR); 7. GONG Yaqi (CHN); 7. PODOLAK Arleta (POL)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Japan took home three gold medals on the opening day of the Qingdao Grand Prix, part of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[106],"class_list":["post-3790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-judo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Final-Momo-Tamaoki-JPN-vs-Jia-Zhou-CHN.jpg",640,604,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Final-Momo-Tamaoki-JPN-vs-Jia-Zhou-CHN-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Final-Momo-Tamaoki-JPN-vs-Jia-Zhou-CHN-300x283.jpg",300,283,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Final-Momo-Tamaoki-JPN-vs-Jia-Zhou-CHN.jpg",640,604,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Final-Momo-Tamaoki-JPN-vs-Jia-Zhou-CHN.jpg",640,604,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Final-Momo-Tamaoki-JPN-vs-Jia-Zhou-CHN.jpg",640,604,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Final-Momo-Tamaoki-JPN-vs-Jia-Zhou-CHN.jpg",640,604,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Final-Momo-Tamaoki-JPN-vs-Jia-Zhou-CHN-640x575.jpg",640,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Final-Momo-Tamaoki-JPN-vs-Jia-Zhou-CHN-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Final-Momo-Tamaoki-JPN-vs-Jia-Zhou-CHN.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3792,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions\/3792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}