Tajima wins Japanese under-90kg final in Paris

Goki Tajima won the men’s under-90kg Paris Grand Slam title in an all-Japanese final against Hidetoshi Tokumochi. After two minutes of grip fighting, Tajima launched an o-uchi-gari in the third minute and drove his opponent onto the mat for ippon.

Tokumochi reached the final despite entering without a previous World Judo Tour medal and standing 190th in the world ranking. His silver completed a Japanese one-two, while Tajima added a Paris gold to the world title already held in his career.

France’s Alexis Mathieu earned bronze against Olympic medallist Theodoros Tselidis, turning an unsuccessful Greek attack into a decisive hold. Egor Andoni won the other bronze by scoring waza-ari with a tai-otoshi against Guilherme Schimidt in the last forty seconds of their contest.