A post by Bloody Elbow Grappling Team member and Judo guy Ananse

This weekend is the IJF Grand Prix in Samsun, Turkey. Much like last week's Grand Prix, it is one of the larger events on the international calendar and so will attract some of the best talent in the world, all attempting to pick up ranking points towards the 2016 Olympics.

In terms of who is fighting, there are some more interesting people showing up for this one. France is sending a decent squad including Loic Korval (World bronze, European silver medalist and the guy who pulled off that triangle/kneebar looking submission at the Paris Grand Slam) and David Larose (European bronze medalist) as well as Gevrise Emane (Olympic bronze, multiple time world and European champ at 2 weight classes) and Audrey Tcheumeo (Olympic bronze, World and European champ and general badass). Brazil is sending mixed squad including Bejing bronze medalist Ketleyn Quadros. The USA is sending Travis Stevens and Hannah Martin again. A lot of strong judo countries including Russia, Georgia, Germany and Mongolia are fielding decent sized teams too.

Basically, the field will be very competitive and there will be lots of big names mixed in with some young prospects looking to make a name for themselves. It should be all sorts of fun.

Finals start at 10 am EST, but click here for the stream of the brackets which start nice and early at 3 am EST

Today's finals will feature:

Women: -63kg, -70kg

Men: -73kg, -81kg

And tomorrow will have:

Women: -78kg, +78kg

Men: -90kg, -100kg, +100kg

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