All Eyes on Paris for the First IJF Grand Slam of the Year

The IJF World Tour heads to 2024 Olympic host city of Paris this weekend for the first Grand Slam of the year.

Whilst the 2024 Olympic qualification is still to open, over 280 judoka will be heading to the Accor Arena of Bercy in the French capital to compete in what is regarded as one of the highlights of the judo calendar.

With Olympic and World medallists adorning each weight category, the Paris Grand Slam promises to be a fantastic weekend of judo action.

Saturday

Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallist Chelsie Giles currently sits at number 3 in the IJF world rankings. Giles won her first Grand Slam gold in Tel Aviv last year and backed this up with three silver medals in Tbilisi, Baku and Abu Dhabi.

Seeded second behind world number one and Olympic silver medallist Amandine Buchard (FRA), Giles has an opening round bye and will face former World Junior Championship bronze medallist Melissa Hurtado Munoz (CUB) in Round 2.

Lucy Renshall will be looking to start her 2022 campaign in the manner she ended her 2021 year. Following the Olympic Games, Renshall picked up a silver medal at the Paris Grand Slam before taking gold at the Baku and Abu Dhabi Grand Slam’s.

Renshall will be joined in the -63kg category by Gemma Howell who returned to competition at last weekend’s Portugal Grand Prix. Howell has tasted success at the Paris Grand Slam before after winning bronze in 2020.

Renshall enters as the top seed and following an opening round bye will face the victor of the opening round contest against 2021 Paris Grand Slam bronze medallist Manon Deketer (FRA) and Pan-American Junior Championship silver medallist Belen Tittarelli (ARG).

Meanwhile Howell will face Melodie Turpin (FRA) in the opening round. Turpin recently finished 7^th at the Portugal Grand Prix.

Sunday

Kelly Petersen-Pollard returns to competition for the first time this year after picking up her first Grand Slam medal in Abu Dhabi in November.

Petersen-Pollard is joined by Jemima Yeats-Brown, in the -70kg category, who finished 7^th at the Portugal Grand Prix last weekend.

6^th seed Petersen-Pollard, who finished 5^th at the 2021 Paris Grand Slam will face Heeju Han (KOR) in Round 2, following an opening round bye. Han finished 5^th at the Portugal Grand Prix last weekend.

Yeats-Brown has been drawn against Sarah Maekelburg (GER) in the opening round.

Emma Reid narrowly missed out on a medal at the Portugal Grand Prix last weekend, finishing 5^th. Making her Paris Grand Slam debut the recent Abu Dhabi Grand Slam gold medallist has been drawn against 2021 Dakar African Open champion Fatim Fofana (CIV) in the opening round.

Preliminary Round action starts at 09:30am on Saturday and 10:00am Sunday.

Final Block is scheduled to commence at 16:00 on each day.

You can watch all the action from the Paris Grand Slam LIVE on the British Judo homepage each day.