Chinese athletes want to write history in Kazakhstan

The Chinese athletes are awaiting the Grand Slam Qazaqstan Barysy where Xu Shiyan will be defending last year’s title. The Chinese athlete have won 14 titles since the first Grand Slam in history in December 2008. The last was in Tashkent of this year for Su Xin who will also compete this weekend in the same category +78kg to collect precious points for the Olympic qualification.

Xu won two Grand Slams in her career and can equal topscorer Yang Xiuli who collected three titels (2008-2010) in her weight class -78kg. The heavyweights +78kg have a reputation in the world of judo winning 9 out of the 14 Grand Slam titles. Wen Tong, Sisi Ma, Shiyan Xu and Xin Su all won two Grand Slams, Song Yu one.

In the IJF World Tour, which includes the IJF World Masters and Grand Prix events, China have won 19 titles, again 2008 Olympic Champion Xiuli Yang is topscorer with four titles as she captured the IJF World Masters in Baku in 2011 as well.

Xunzhao Cheng was the only man to win a World Judo Tour gold medal, at the Grand Slam in Paris in 2017. He achieved to win an Olympic medal in 2016 in his class -90kg.

China have collected 25 Olympic medals (nine champions) so far in the long history since 1964. Xian Dongmei was without a doubt the most successful winning the Olympic title in 2004 and 2008.

Despite last year’s title in Kazachstan for Xu Shiyan, Chinese athletes have experience in winning. Yu Song won the world title in Astana in 2015 and three athletes have won Military World titles in Astana in 2013.