Distria Krasniqi shone in the French capital on Saturday. And in the end she won the gold medal at the Paris Grand Slam, arguably the most famous judo competition of the year.
Distria was unstoppable in the 52kg class. In the famous Bercy Arena she defeated the Spanish Ariane Toro Soler in the final in front of around 15 spectators. There are now five wins and one defeat against Soler.
He defeated Soler very quickly, in 27 seconds. He showed a beautiful throw against her for ippon.
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The gold medal won on Saturday is Distri’s fourth in Paris. She was also able to win this competition in 2020, 2023 and 2024. She also has two silver and three bronze medals. She also won Olympic silver in the French capital and now has a total of ten medals in Paris.
As the number one seed in its category, Distria had a clear path in the first round. In the second round she easily defeated the Frenchwoman Alicia Marques. In the quarterfinals she had a tough fight with the Brazilian Larissa Pimenta. In extra time she finally prevailed with a Vasari. In the semi-finals, Distria defeated the Frenchwoman Amandine Buchard, who was considered her biggest competitor in the tournament. Against Buchard she secured a Yuko early on, the smallest point gain. She then controlled the fight until the end and made it to the final.
Five more Kosovar judoka competed at the Grand Slam in Paris on Saturday. Fationa Kasapi achieved the best result with seventh place in the weight class up to 52 kilograms.
In her Grand Slam debut in Paris, Fationa defeated France’s Blandine Pont in the first round and Hungarian Roza Gyertyas in the second round. However, in the quarterfinals she lost to the experienced German Mascha Ballhaus and then in the repechage round to the South Korean Jang Suyun.
Akil Gjakova won the first round in the 73 kg class. In the second round he defeated Otari Kvantidze from Portugal, but then lost to Manuel Lombardo from Italy. Akil received a third penalty in extra time. Kosovo’s judo coach, master Driton Kuka, reacted sharply after the second and third punishments against Akil, describing them as unjustified.
In the weight class up to 48 kg, Erza Muminović was stopped in the second fight after successfully completing the first. Flaka Loxha lost the first fight in the weight class up to 57 kg. Laura Fazliu competed in the weight class up to 63 kg. In the first round she was free, in the second she met Gili Sharir from Israel. After 14 minutes of fighting, the referee imposed the third penalty on both judoka, which rarely happens in judo. Both were then suspended and resigned.
But thanks to Distri, Kosovo won another medal in Paris.
On Saturday the fights took place on four different tatami mats – a first for this competition. 488 judoka from 78 different countries are taking part in the tournament in Paris. It is the first competition of the year on the Judo World Tour.
Results of the Judo Grand Slam in Paris
