Hatashita Sports Athletes January Recap

The 2026 season is officially underway and Hatashita Sports athletes wasted no time making their mark on the international stage.

Strong start in Africa

The year kicked off on January 25 at the African Open in Casablanca, where Jacob Yang continued his impressive Continental Open run. After earning his first silver medal at the Pan American Open in Montreal last November, Yang added another silver to his collection in Morocco in -66kg. 

Yang opened the day in explosive fashion, scoring ippon with a very low ura nage in the first minute against Mohamed Naami of Morocco. He followed that with another lightning fast victory, throwing Adris Jakubauskas of Lithuania for ippon with his trademark cross grip drop morote seoi nage.

After a tough Golden Score win over Soulaimane El Mekkaoui of Morocco, Yang made quick work of Neil MacDonald of Great Britain, again scoring ippon with his favorite morote seoi nage in just 37 seconds. In the final, he was caught by Saigid Kerimov, who secured ippon with a hopping uchi mata, leaving Yang with a well earned silver medal.

In the women’s 70kg category, Yasmin Alamin captured bronze after a determined and tactical performance. She opened with an osoto gari for waza ari followed by a sankaku submission against Hazel Taylor of Great Britain. Alamin then defeated Wided Rajid of Tunisia with two hugging kosoto attacks for waza ari awasete ippon.

A quarterfinal loss sent her into repechage, where she stayed composed, throwing Ksenia Medvedeva of Russia with harai goshi for yuko. The bronze medal match against Moira De Villiers of New Zealand went into Golden Score, where Alamin secured the win with a timely counter to claim her place on the podium.

Medals in Sofia

The following weekend, from January 31 to February 1, Team USA competed at the Sofia European Open in Bulgaria.

On day one, Christopher Velazco earned bronze in the -60kg division. After surviving a difficult opening match that went to Golden Score, Velazco found his rhythm in repechage and capped off the day by pinning Ben Tamary of Israel for ippon in the bronze medal contest.

Day two saw Daniel Liubimovski fight his way to silver in the minus 100 kilogram category. With wins featuring sasae tsurikomi ashi, kata guruma, and a powerful ura nage counter for ippon, Liubimovski advanced to the final. He narrowly missed gold, conceding yuko in the final seconds to Bulgaria’s Boris Georgiev.

What’s next

With January in the books, the momentum is building. The next stop is the Paris Grand Slam, where we will see more Hatashita Sports athletes compete at one of the most prestigious events of the year. Stay tuned.