Surprise developments in prelims at women's division U63kg

The queen is back at the Games and she wants to retain ownership of the title. Clarisse Agbegnenou has won a world title since becoming a mum and now wants the ultimate crown too. Seeded 6th, she is everyone’s nightmare in the fourth quarter and in the morning session she proved it.

Gili Sharir of Israel was a long warm-up for Agbegnenou, who eventually threw her in golden score. Against Ketleyn Quadros of Brazil, she showed she was fully switched on, displaying dominance throughout the match. She was even better against Laura Fazliu, throwing her with a direct tani-otoshi for ippon in the first 30 seconds. With these victories, Agbegnenou secured her spot in her third Olympic semi-final.

At the top of the draw, the current world champion, Joanne Van Lieshout of the Netherlands, was taken by surprise by Jisu Kim of South Korea, who was then eliminated by a fantastic performance from Katarina Kristo of Croatia. Kristo also threw Nami Takaichi of Japan with a seoi-otoshi, putting the Japanese athlete out of the Games.

With Japan gone and the world champion commiserating with her, the top half of the draw gathered extra hope and a tangible feeling of excitement rose. Kristo was the first to reach the semi-final stage, and joining her should have been recent world silver medallist Angelika Szymanska of Poland. However, Szymanska had already been defeated in the round of 16 by Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz of Mexico.

The Mexican judoka went on to dispatch long-term friend and rival Lubjana Piovesana in the quarter-final with a neat o-uchi-gari in golden score, securing her spot in the semi-finals. This quarter had also included Britain's Lucy Renshall, who was dispatched by Piovesana in the round of 16.

On the bottom half of the draw, another top seed had to say their goodbyes as Andreja Leski of Slovenia made her intentions clear. She removed Nino Askilashvili of Georgia and Kaouthar Belkadi of Algeria from the draw, and then sent world number 2 Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard of Canada to the repechage.

Leski and Agbegnenou have fought five times on the World Judo Tour, and in all five episodes, the six-time world champion came out on top. Leski is determined to tilt that record, and there’s no better place to do it than in the Champs-de-Mars Arena at the Olympic Games.