Asami stays on path for Olympic spot

World champion Haruna Asami took a big step Friday toward earning her place on Japan's London Olympic judo team, defeating rival Tomoko Fukumi in the 48-kg final of the Grand Slam Tokyo meet.

Asami scored an ippon victory over Fukumi with a leg trip in what is considered to be the most hotly contested weight class among Japanese judoka after Ryoko Tani retired last year with five Olympic medals, including two gold, and seven world titles.

Other first-day winners were Takumi Miyakawa (52-kg women's division), Hirofumi Yamamoto (60-kg men) and Tomofumi Takajo (66-kg men).

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Asami leads four judo winners in Rio

Rio de Janeiro — World champion Haruna Asami won the women's 48-kg division and Japanese judoka ended up taking four of Saturday's seven events at the Grand Slam meet in Rio de Janeiro.

Asami defeated home favorite Sarah Menezes in the final.

The other Japanese winners on the opening day of the two-day meet were Kana Abe in the women's 63 kg, Hirofumi Yamamoto in the men's 60 kg and Riki Nakaya in the men's 73 kg.

Hiroyuki Akimoto, another world champion, was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the event won by Nakaya.

Hiroaki Hiraoka and Masashi Ebinuma were knocked out in the semifinals of the men's 60 kg and 66 kg categories, respectively.

This year's world championships will be held in Paris in August.

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