Uta Abe takes gold without a threat

Who can defeat Abe Uta of Japan? This is the big question that will remain valid until the Tokyo Olympics. For sure, no-one during the preliminary rounds of the Kazan Grand Slam. The Japanese was, without a doubt, in good form. In the final she faced Astride Gneto (FRA), who will replaced in Tokyo, as the undisputed leader of the category in France is world number one Amandine Buchard.

Without any surprise, Abe Uta was the first to action and the Japanese judoka scored a waza-ari with an aerial sode-tsuri-komi-goshi. A few seconds later she concluded on the floor with an immobilisation for an indisputable victory that might announce further victories ahead. Abe displayed some remarkable judo (including some very unorthodox techniques) at the Kazan Grand Slam.

Abe vs Chitu (ROU): She scores waza-ari with a very high uchimata against Chitu's kosoto attack. But it was her second attack that we really impressive. She used some kind of tewaza to turn Chitu over for a waza-ari-awasete-ippon.

Abe vs Perez Box (ESP). Both her scores involved rather unusual techniques. The first one was done in response to an osoto-gari attack. Normally the counter would be osoto-gaeshi but Abe rotates so much that her osoto counter turns into a harai-goshi. For her second attack she uses a kind of sode into ouchi-gari, which is very unusual.

Abe vs Gneto (FRA). She opens up the accounts with her trademark sode-tsurikomi-goshi, but this time off double sleeves. The second score came from groundwork where she uses her famous Figure-4 grip to turn Gneto over for a pin.

Evelyne Tschopp (SUI) is present in final blocks regularly. Once again she offered herself an opportunity to win a medal, against Alesya Kuznetsova (RUS), who had no record better than a seventh place in Tel Aviv this season. After a failed ippon-ko-uchi-gake attempt from Kuznetsova, Tschopp controlled her opponent and followed her to the floor to apply an unstoppable shime-waza for ippon, to win the bronze.

15th in the world, Gefen Primo (ISR) won a beautiful and promising bronze medal at the last European Championships. For the second bronze medal contest in Kazan she faced Ana Perez Box (ESP), ranked 12th in the world, who held Primo down for 20 seconds for ippon, after a nice piece of work on the floor.

Where each result, as small as it might be, is of paramount importance, we could witness the total control of the Japanese athletes, who prove, if it had to be done, that they are ready for the rendezvous of their lives in just a few weeks, at the Budokan in Tokyo.