Abe Hifumi beats Maruyama Joshiro again at All-Japan Championships

Abe Hifumi won the latest instalment of his rivalry with Maruyama Joshiro on the final day of the All-Japan Judo Championships in Fukuoka on Sunday (3 April).

Abe defeated Maruyama in an epic one-off bout in December 2020 to decide who went to the Tokyo Olympic Games, and then took -66kg gold on home soil.

Maruyama claimed his second world title last June in Budapest, having beaten his perennial rival on the way to his first in 2019, and the pair met again to decide who is the world's top judoka in this weight class.

Again, there was little to separate the two men with the bout going to golden score. And it was 24-year-old Abe who prevailed when his opponent was disqualified for incurring his third shido penalty.

The reigning Olympic champion said afterwards, "I’m glad I could prove that I’m the Olympic champion. He’s tough as you would expect but I just felt like I couldn’t lose."

And he gave a warning to those trying to take his Olympic title at Paris 2024, adding, "This was my first competition after the Games but I was aggressive, always going for ippon. I want to win them all until Paris."

The pair look set to do battle again at October's World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

On Saturday, Abe's sister Uta - who also won gold in Tokyo - was forced to withdraw ahead of her -52kg semi-final with a recurrence of a shoulder injury.

The 21-year-old had surgery after the Games and told reporters she was still recovering from the operation.

She said, "It was not dislocated but it was really loose and the labrum was torn. I actually should have had surgery before the Tokyo Olympics but didn’t have enough time so I did it afterwards.

"After the first match, the shoulder still didn’t feel right, not close to 100 per cent. It was the first competition in a while and my body wouldn’t move. If Tokyo was 100 per cent then right now I’m at 20, 30."

Abe's withdrawal gave Tsubone Nanako a bye through to the final where she went down to Shiraishi Hibiki.

Despite her injury, Abe was selected for October's World Championships in Tashkent.

Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Hamada Shori won the -78kg title with victory by ippon over Takayama Rika.

At +78kg, Tomita Wakaba retained her title when Kodama Hikaru racked up three shidos in the final. That was after three-time world champion Asahina Sarah was ruled out by a positive Covid test.

With undisputed -73kg king Ono Shohei not competing, 2017 world champion Hashimoto Soichi regained the All-Japan title when Tsukamoto Aya was disqualified for three shidos.

Olympic champion Nagase Takanori came through a fine tussle with Fujiwara Sotaro in the -81kg final, scoring an ippon in golden score to take victory.

There was a surreal and premature end to the +100kg competition with Ogawa Yusei taking the title after his semi-final win over Rio 2016 silver medallist Harasawa Hisayoshi.

In a second semi-final lasting over 13 minutes, Saito Tatsuru and Ota Hyoga were both disqualified for racking up three shido penalties leaving Ogawa with a walkover in the final.

All-Japan Judo Championships results:

Women's finals (Saturday)

-48kg: Tonaki Funa def. Tsunoda Natsumi

-52kg: Shiraishi Hibiki def. Tsubone Nanako

-57kg: Funakubo Haruka def. Yoshida Tsukasa

-63kg: Horikawa Megumi def. Nabekura Nami

-70kg: Tanaka Shiho def. Terada Utana

-78kg: Hamada Shori def. Takayama Rika

+78kg: Tomita Wakaba def. Kodama Hikaru

Men's finals (Sunday)

-60kg: Koga Genki def. Takato Naohisa

-66kg: Abe Hifumi def. Maruyama Joshiro

-73kg: Hashimoto Soichi def. Tsukamoto Aya

-81kg: Takanori Nagase def. Fujiwara Sotaro

-90kg: Mashiyama Kosuke def. Tajima Goki

-100kg: Haga Ryunosuke def. Yamaguchi Takaya

+100kg: Ogawa Yusei by walkover