Judo Hoje.

The Guayaquil World Mixed Team Championship for Cadets capped two great weeks in Pan-America in style. Here are the podium pictures; a celebration of the world's best cadet judoka.

The World Judo Tour has been in Pan-America for the last two weeks, first at the Lima Grand Prix and then in Guayaquil, Ecuador, for the World Judo Championships Cadets Individuals and Mixed Teams. From seniors to cadets and from individuals to the cadet team event, Pan-America has catered for everyone, embraced everyone and facilitated the making of incredible judo memories.

The preliminary rounds of the Guayaquil World Championships Cadets Mixed Teams 2026 delivered an extraordinary set of matches. The top ranked Japanese team exited early after a bye in the first round, a loss to Kazakhstan in the quarter-final and a loss in the repechage to the Russian Federation. As soon as the event began, the gold was up for grabs!

The mixed team event of the World Championships Cadets is underway in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and in only the quarter-final stage, there are already immense performances that are making a huge difference to the draw and the possible medal-winners of the day.

In the summer of 2024, a young judoka, a girl from Samarkand not raised in any of the big cities of the world, became an Olympic judo champion, changing the expectations and opportunities of an entire nation of girls in an instant.

Adilzhan Zhaudinov (KAZ) began his day as the second seed, a position which should have given him a calm period in the early rounds, but the draw was unkind and gave him the unseeded Japanese judoka in his first contest. For either of these competitors to face an early exit would have been a tough break.

Kazakhstan, Canada and Japan all put barriers in the path of top seed Hatice Tuana Balci (TUR) but she paid none of them any mind. Working hard to employ well practised strategies, Balci moved through the draw perfectly to arrive at the final.

Jurabek Eshpulatov (UZB), the current Asian cadet champion, arrived as the number one seed. Despite a great deal of experience and ability below him on the draw, among the other seeded judoka and many others, he was the only top ranked athlete to make it to the final and only Matthew Molchanov, among the top 4, joined him in the final block at all. It was a strange day in the -90 kg category.

The top two seeds in this category gave not a single thought to the possibility of not reaching the final. Clarisse Vallim (BRA), the cadet world number one and Valerie Tombou (BEL), world number 4, were focused, powerful and determined from the very beginning of the day.