Ungureanu, winner of the Zagreb Grand Prix in September, confirmed her dominance in the under 48 kilograms class by launching a left handed ashiwaza technique on the edge of the fighting area for ippon to take the top prize at the Qingdao Guoxin Stadium in the Chinese city.

The first bronze medal went to Mongolia's Galbadrakh Otgontsetseg, who overcame Spaniard Julia Figueroa, while the second went to North Korean Sol Mi Kim after she defeated Russian Alesya Kuznetsova in only 47 seconds.

The women's under 52kg final saw World Championships bronze medallist Natalia Kuziutina of Russia being handed the gold medal as her prospective opponent, Japanese 2010 world champion Yuka Nishida - who was making her comeback - suffered an injury during her semi-final and was unable to compete in the gold medal match.

Natalia Kuziutina (second left) claimed the gold medal after Yuka Nishida (left) was unable to compete in the final because of an injury ©IJF


The two bronze medals were claimed by German Mareen Kräh and Christianne Legentil of Mauritius after they defeated compatriot Romy Tarangul and Romanian Andreea Chițu respectively.

German Olympian Miryam Roper, returning to competition after a break following this year's World Championships in Chelyabinsk, came back on fine form to secure the gold medal in the under 57kg final.

She defeated home athlete Yang Liu to take the top prize, while Serbian Jovana Rogić and Sanne Verhagen of The Netherlands secured the bronze medals after overcoming Germany's Johanna Mueller and Romanian Olympic silver medallist Corina Căprioriu respectively.

Meanwhile in the men's competition, Vincent Limare of France claimed his first Grand Prix gold medal with a hard fought victory over European silver medallist Hovhannes Davtyan of Armenia.

Austria's Beijing 2008 silver medallist Ludwig Paischer secured a bronze medal after overcoming Swiss Olympian Ludovic Chammartin, while the other bronze went to Russian Robert Mshvidobadze after his opponent, Kherlen Ganbold of Mongolia, was penalised for grabbing his challenger's leg.

Yakub Shamilov claimed the men's under 66kg gold medal for Russia ©IJF


The final weight class of the day, the men's under 66kg, saw Russia's Yakub Shamilov claiming the top podium spot after defeating German Sebastian Seidl.

The two bronze medals were won by Yuhei Rokugo of Japan and home athlete Duanbin Ma after they secured victory over Mongolian Dovdon Altansukh and Belgian Kenneth Van Gansbeke respectively.

The action got underway following an Opening Ceremony, in which a group of young judoka stepped onto the tatami as the 32 flag bearers of the participating nations.

"Through years, Qingdao has attached much support and concerns on development of judo, and has successfully held this event for consecutive 13 years," Ji Gaoshang, director general of the Qingdao Sports Bureau, said during the ceremony.

"The Grand Prix 2014 is held in Qingdao again, which will strongly promote the development and improvement of judo and sports career in Qingdao, and, meanwhile, will give the people of Qingdao a chance to watch world top-class Judo competition.

"This year's event is one of the pointing races of 2016 Brazil Olympic Games, and also an opportunity for judokas to show themselves and chase their dreams, thus would arouse much concerns of international judo circle."

Daniel Lascau, sports director at the International Judo Federation, officially opened the competition.

The competition is due to continue tomorrow with the preliminaries and final block in the women's under 63kg and under 70kg, and the men's under 73kg and under 81kg.

Watch the latest action on Judo TV here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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