Hifumi Abe beat Ebinuma, Zantaraia, and Golan to win his first international senior tournament.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMcLQPWb8ig
Holy shit. You've been competing on the international circuit in top level for many years and then some kid comes and whoops you. Well, that's the name of the beast. I'm sure all the top guys achieved great things at young age too. 
The preliminaries and finals are on YouTube. All the US players lost in their 1st matchKunihiro(60K), Delgado(52k) and Delpopolo(73k). Why didn't Marti Malloy fight in 57K?
Also Travis Stevens didn't fight in 81K? Any reasons?
Marti was injured. Travis had been dealing with injuries as well. He was hoping to make it to Tokyo when I spoke to him in September. Only a guess, but probably was still recovering.
Japan's depth and ability to enter 4 contestants at Tokyo Grand Slam always gives fits to other countries. The thing is there is always some very young player who nobody knows that comes through and beats the top people. It is to be expected. They know everything about their opponent but their opponents know little about them. It is a huge advantage.
Christa Daguchi knocked off Silva, almost knocked off Marti and trounced some other world beaters last year at TGS. She still did well this year, but not nearly as well as TGS. Once she became a known entity, it got tougher.
Thanks, Kayla(-78k) saved the day(3) for USA judo winning Gold. 81K Is going to be such a tough road for Travis going forward. Jae Bum Kim is back, some real tough newcomers. Same with 73k for Nick. Watched day 1 finals and will watch day 2/3 tonight/tomorrow.
I’m very proud of myself for posting this 10 years ago.
I can’t believe it was that long ago.