The Tournoi de Paris, now a Grand Slam tournament, this year celebrates its 50^th anniversary and before the first medals were awarded an Opening Ceremony took place at the AccorHotels Arena.

The Ceremony included a speech from IJF President Marius Vizer who reflected on Paris reaching the milestone.

"All the champions and heroes who have built the history of this event for 50 years should be congratulated," said Vizer.

"Congratulations to the French Federation, which in a difficult period for all, took up the challenge to organise the Grand Slam.

"It is a major sign for the whole judo family which provides enthusiasm and brings hope."

Prior to the first block of finals, some of France’s most famous judoka made an appearance in front of the crowd, including Lucie Decosse, who has won a record seven Paris Grand Slams, Teddy Riner, whose 154-match unbeaten run was dramatically ended at this event last year, and Clarisse Agbegnenou, who won individual and team gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

On the tatami it was great day for Japan who took their first gold in the women’s under-48 kilograms category after Wakana Koga produced a powerful display against France’s Mélanie Legoux Clément.

The bronze medal contests were won by two French athletes in Shirine Boukli and Blandine Pont.

The men’s under-66kg category saw an all-Japanese gold medal bout, with Ryoma Tanaka winning by ippon courtesy of a utsuri-goshi move to defeat Taikoh Fujisaka.

France won both bronze medals in the category, with Orlando Cazorla beating Mongolia’s Narmandakh Bayanmunkh courtesy of a o-goshi, while Walide Khyar overcame Moldova’s Denis Vieru, who was disqualified during golden score after diving on his opponents head.

Japan’s third gold of the day came in the women’s under-57kg, with Haruka Funakubo winning gold after a ne-waza helped her defeat Caroline Fritze of Germany.

Eteri Liparteliani of Georgia and Mina Libeer of Belgium claimed bronzes in the category after beating Kaja Kajzer of Slovenia and Faiza Mokdar of France.

Japan’s success continued in the men’s under-73kg category as they won a fourth gold, with Kenshi Harada beating Theo Riquin of France thanks to a kata-gatame in golden score.

Bronze medals went to European champion Hidayat Heydarov of Azerbaijan, who scored an ippon by kata-guruma to defeat Guillaume Chaine of France, and Alexandru Raicu of Romania who beat Tajikistan’s Somon Makhmadbekov.

Elsewhere, in the men’s under-60kg category Balabay Aghayev of Azerbaijan was a surprise winner defeating Ramazan Abdulaev of Russia.

The bronze medals went to Romain Valadier Picard of France, who won bronze a week ago at the World Junior Championships in Olbia and Genki Koga of Japan.

In the women’s under-52kg category gold went to Israel’s Gefen Primo who overcame France’s Astride Gneto in golden score.

It concluded an impressive week for the Primo family, with Gefen’s sister Kerem, a silver medallist at the Junior World Championships last week.

Khorloodoi Bishrelt of Mongolia and Mascha Ballhaus of Germany won the bronze medals in the category.

The final category contested of the day was the women’s under-63kg, with gold going to Barbara Timo of Portugal, who overcame Britain’s Lucy Renshall.

Manon Deketer rounded off a good day for the hosts by taking one of the bronze medals after beating Germany’s Sappho Coban, with the second going to Angelika Szymanska of Poland who beat Russia’s Ekaterina Valkova.