Reigning world champion Sanshiro Murao was not in the competition, but it as still a Japanese show in the men’s -90kg competition at the Paris Grand Slam judo championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was still an all-Japanese final with former world champion Goki Tajima taking on Hidetoshi Tokumochi, who has no previous medals on the World Judo Tour and is 190th on the IJF World Ranking List.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the first 2 minutes it was a kumi-kata battle but last he third minute began, Tajima launched a massive o-uchi-gari, catching Tokumochi\u2019s ankle and driving him backwards and into the tatami. Ippon was scored, nothing else could be accepted. Tajima now has a world gold and a Paris gold; his collection is growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Azerbaijan’s Zelim Tckaev enjoyed a smooth run to the -81kg final, But the last fight of his campaign was not be so trouble-free though with Japanese Yuhei Oino ready with an opposing style and a calm sharpness, both difficult to overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until the halfway point, neither managed to break through the other\u2019s armour but as the first two minutes ended, Oino used an almost invisible de-ashi-harai; yuko scored. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This meant Tckaev had to up the pace and the pressure. He did but it was not productive. Oino had done enough and rode out the time to the gong and become the 2026 Paris Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The men’s -100kg saw two judokas Dota Arai of Japan and Anton Savytskiy of Ukraine impressive during the morning session at the Accor Arena Bercy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite attack after attack from both judokas, many attempt that would have launched others, golden score was required and as the extra time began not even a shido could be found on the board, a testament to their skill and intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After almost six minutes total fighting time, Arai finally caught Savytskiy as he came out of an attack of his own. The de-ashi-harai caught him sweetly. Arai released a cry of satisfaction before both men smiled respectfully; this was a fight enjoyed by both men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was an all-Japanese mens +100kg final between Hyoga Ota and Kanta Nakano. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aware that the other could throw at any moment, both judokas hung back, unwilling to make what could be a costly mistake. The referee reminded them that they must come forward and engage, with a shido apiece. A minute later they required another!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nakano received the message clearly and began to attack more, leaving Ota to accept a third shido and the silver medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the final of the women’s -70kg category, number one seed Szofi Ozbas of Hungary was challenged by a relative newcomer to the senior circuit, 20-year-old April Lynn Fohou of Switzerland. The latter almost fell several times against then power of Ozbas\u2019 trademark seoi-otoshi but she was able to keep her balance and avoid being scored against. It continued like that for 4 minutes and although Fohou tried to attack, she didn\u2019t keep up with the pace of Ozbas and therefore collected two penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In golden score Fohou found new strength and began to open up, pushing the Hungarian champion to her limits. However, Ozbas is not in a big final for the first time. She\u2019s as hard-working as anyone could ever be and has reserves deeper than her opponents might like. As things became trickier for her, she changed gears and made space in the transition phase between tachi-waza and ne-waza turning Fohou on to her back. A score, a win, a gold medal in Paris; all belonged to Szofi Ozbas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the women’s -78kg Yelyzaveta Lytvynenko of the UAE was up against Italian Alice Bellandi. The bout began with a pace that reflected their understanding of each other\u2019s ability. Biding their time, ensuring no mistake were made, they gradually increased the pace but the penalties were already arriving, two for Lytvynenko and one for Bellandi inside the first two minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bellandi, a gold back patch on her judogi and a red one in her pocket, understood the mission and so increased the pace one more time, attacking with her well known seoi-otoshi, with no response from her opponent. Several exchanges passed that way but eventually one seoi landed in just the right space and Bellandi rose up under Lytvynenko and threw for waza-ari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The remaining 14 seconds of the match passed without incident and Bellandi finally claimed her first Paris Grand Slam gold to add to the Olympic and world titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The women’s +78kg was an all-French final, a perfect way for France Judo to complete the women\u2019s categories in Paris. Julia Tolofua and Romane Dicko know each other well but that didn\u2019t stop them delivering an open and positive contest, attacks from both, energy from both. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, as Tolofua mounted yet another attack, hooking on to Dicko\u2019s outside leg, her support leg gave way and she had to concede the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men’s -81kg: <\/strong>1. Oino Yuhei (Jpn); 2. Tckaev Zelim (Aze), 3. Sukhoparov Egor (Rus) and Zhubanazar Abylaikhan (Kaz)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men’s -90 kg: <\/strong>1. Tajima Goki (Jpn); 2. Tokumochi Hidetoshi (Jpn); 3. Mathieu Alexis (Fra) and Andoni Egor (Rus)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men’s -100 kg<\/strong>: 1. Arai Dota (Jpn); 2. Savytskiy Anton (Ukr); Bilalov Niiaz (Rus) and Sharkhan Nurlykhan (Kaz) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Below +100 kg<\/strong>: 1. Nakano Kanta (Jpn); 2. Ota Hyoga (Jpn); 3. Kim Minjong (Kor) and Spijkers Jur (Ned)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women’s -70 kg<\/strong>: 1. Ozbas Szofi (Hun); 2. Fohouo April Lynn (Sui); 3. Maeda Rin (Jpn) and Tsunoda Roustant Ai (Esp)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women’s -78 kg<\/strong>: 1. Bellandi Alice (Ita); 2. Lytvynenko Yelyzaveta (UAE), 3. Ngelebeya Liz (Fra) and Olek Anna Monta (Ger)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women’s +78 kg<\/strong>: 1. Dicko Romaine (Fra) 2. Tolofua Julia (Fra); 3. Fontaine Lea (Fra) and Arai Mao (Jpn)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reigning world champion Sanshiro Murao was not in the competition, but it as still a Japanese show in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9228,"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-9227","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\/2026\/02\/Goki-Tajima.jpg",2002,1127,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Goki-Tajima-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Goki-Tajima-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Goki-Tajima-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Goki-Tajima-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Goki-Tajima-1536x865.jpg",1536,865,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Goki-Tajima.jpg",2002,1127,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Goki-Tajima-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Goki-Tajima-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\/2026\/02\/Goki-Tajima.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9227","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=9227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9229,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9227\/revisions\/9229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}