Abu Dhabi Grand Slam: gold for Fawaz, silver for Buchard

Martha Fawaz won the -57 kg title at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam on Thursday 29 October at the Mubadala Arena. In the final, the Frenchwoman beat Brazil's Shirlen Nascimento with two waza-ari. On the same day, Amandine Buchard reached the -52 kg final and lost to Croatia's Tihea Topolovec. That gives France two medals on the first day of a World Tour event that runs until Saturday 31 October.

Fawaz turns the final around

Fawaz went behind in the final. Nascimento scored first with a kata-guruma that came close to ippon. The French judoka levelled with o-soto-gari, then settled it with an o-uchi-gari that put her opponent on her back for a second waza-ari. According to the International Judo Federation (IJF), it is her second Grand Slam medal, after a long recovery from a serious injury. Top seed Timna Nelson-Levy of Israel missed the podium after losing to South Korea's Mimi Huh, the 2024 world champion. Huh and Croatia's Ana Viktorija Puljiz took bronze.

Buchard beaten late in the final

Amandine Buchard, Olympic -52 kg silver medallist in Tokyo in 2021, was unseeded in Abu Dhabi. She worked through the whole draw to the final, which stayed tight until the last minute. Topolovec, ranked 65th in the world and new to the category, then scored waza-ari with uchi-mata, leaving the Frenchwoman no time to respond. It is the Croatian's first Grand Slam medal. Bronze went to Israel's Gefen Primo, world silver medallist in Baku this month, and Hungary's Roza Gyertyas.

The rest of day one

In the men's draw, Azerbaijan's Balabay Aghayev, top seed at -60 kg, threw Tajikistan's Loiq Kudbudinov for ippon with seoi-otoshi in just over a minute. At -66 kg, Sukhrob Boqiev of Bahrain, ranked outside the world's top 200 before the event, won his first Grand Slam by beating Russia's Iago Abuladze; earlier in the day he had knocked out a French opponent. In all, 59 delegations are competing and 13 countries won medals on Thursday.

Day two, Friday 30 October, features the middle weight classes, and the heavyweights close the event on Saturday. All contests stream on the IJF's JudoTV platform. For the French team, the season continues with the European mixed team championships in Belgrade on 7 November, then the Zagreb Grand Prix from 13 to 15 November.