Christa Deguchi
Country: Canada | Born: 29 October 1995 (26 years)
Canadian judoka Christa Deguchi is the 2019 World Champion. She won bronze at the World Championships in Baku in 2018 as first Canadian woman. She won the Grand Slam in Paris three times. Christa won the Grand Slam of Ekaterinburg in 2019. She won two World Junior Championships medals and gold with the team of Japan. Japanese-Canadian parents and speaks English. She won Grand Prix in Hohhot and Zagreb many times in the final against teammate Jessica Klimkait. Deguchi won two Panam titles. She bagged the Grand Slam gold in Antalya in 2021 and gold at Grand Prix in Zagreb in 2022.

Acelya Toprak
Country: Great Britain | Born: 1 June 1998 (24 years)
British judoka Acelya Toprak won the European Open in Belgrade in 2017 as youngest winner. She took a silver medal at the Junior European Championships in Maribor in 2017. She won the European Cup U21 in Paks in 2018. She clinched a silver medal at the European Open in Odivelas in 2020. She captured a silver medal at the European Open in Warsaw in 2020. She claimed a bronze medal at the European Open in Sarajevo in 2021. She claimed a gold medal at the European Cup in Dubrovnik in 2021. She became British champion in 2021.

-57kg
Tariyal (IND) and Legentil (MRI) fought it out for the first bronze medal, in a scrappy meeting that looked like ending in penalties and not in favour of the Mauritian but with 12 seconds left on the clock Legentil twitched and caught a tidy little ko-uchi-gari that sealed the victory.

Scotland’s Malin Wilson and England’s Lele Nairne fought for the second bronze. The crowd were loud for Lele and that undoubtedly spurred her on. It was a high-paced contest with both fighters looking strong and determined. Wilson controlled a great exchange on the ground but after almost a minute it was stopped for a restart. Almost immediately it went back to ground and with super-strong attacks there from Wilson. Both women took chances and hunted for the big win but with no let-up in ne-waza. As it went into golden score the to and fro and continued and the explosive effort from both was exciting. At 4 minutes into golden score we could have expected it to be getting less attractive but the judo was anything but that, fiery from start to finish. Eventually a 3rd shido for Nairne finished the match but it seemed like a deflating final score line after more than 10 minutes of impressive, nail-biting exchanges. That was the hardest fought medal of the night.

The final between 2019 world champion and Toprak from the home nation couldn’t compete with the intensity of the previous match. Toprak didn’t look intimidated by her opponent’s CV even for a second, always pushing hard for the first grip. An incredibly fast osoto-otoshi from the Canadian had to be reviewed; it took everyone by surprise, but the score was waived off as the landing didn’t meet the criteria for waza-ari. It seemed to annoy Deguchi and she opened up and made it impossible for Toprak to squeeze in her own attacks. It went into golden score and team England enjoyed their girl then taking a breath applying a new heavy grip and forcing two poor drops, the second of which almost produced a positive ne-waza situation for Toprak. A minute into extra time and at 2 shido apiece, Deguchi finally hooked on to an outside leg and managed to finish with a big ippon. Gold for Canada and a brilliant silver for England.

As the first day in Birmingham came to a close Australia’s Katz and Katz plus Canada’s Deguchi and Deguchi could have filled a podium all by themselves, with bronze, bronze, silver and gold respectively. We talk about the judo family a lot but here it’s taken on a literal tone.

Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022 ►
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Zagreb Grand Prix 2022 ►
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Hungary Grand Slam 2022 ►
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Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam 2022 ►
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Tbilisi Grand Slam 2022 ►
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All Japan Judo Championships 2022 ►
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