They say anything can happen in judo, and it's sometimes true! Dayyan Boulemtafes, a 19-year-old French player who had lost in the first round of the 2025 Lima World Junior Championships, found himself to be Hidayat Heydarov's first opponent in the 2025 Lima Grand Prix.
Heydarov, of course, was the 2024 European, World and Olympic Champion. But that didn't faze the young Frenchman, who went on to throw Heydarov with sumi-gaeshi for ippon. This surely must have been the upset of the tournament.
Blog posts
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Who will be selected for the 2026 World's: Abe or Takeoka?
Japan's Haruka Kaju is seen as a newaza specialist who has one killer technique and it seems to be all she does. But is that really true? Let's take a closer look at Kaju's repertoire of techniques.
An overview of all the winners from all the categories fought on Day 2.