UWA Judo Club athlete Maria Swan continued her preparation for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games with consecutive appearances on the IJF World Judo Tour in Mongolia and China.
Competing in the women’s under-78kg division, Swan represented Australia at the Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam from 19–21 June before travelling to the Qingdao Grand Prix from 26–28 June.
The two tournaments attracted strong international fields and provided the Western Australian with valuable competition against established athletes from Japan and China. Swan responded to a difficult opening event in Mongolia by recording an important victory and pushing the eventual silver medallist into golden score one week later.
Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam
Swan began her campaign at the Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam, where 28 athletes contested the women’s under-78kg division.
Drawn in Pool B, Swan opened against Japan’s Kurena Ikeda in the round of 32.
The contest remained competitive for almost the full four minutes, with both athletes working to establish control and create a decisive scoring opportunity. Swan accumulated three shidos during the match, however, resulting in hansoku-make after three minutes and 56 seconds and awarding the victory to Ikeda.
Under the repechage format, Swan needed Ikeda to advance into the quarter-finals to remain in the competition. The Japanese athlete was subsequently defeated by the Netherlands’ Yael van Heemst in the round of 16, bringing Swan’s Ulaanbaatar campaign to an end.
Ikeda finished unplaced, while Van Heemst continued through the quarter-final before ultimately finishing fifth.
Although it was an early exit, the Grand Slam provided Swan with another opportunity to test herself against a Japanese opponent in a high-level World Tour environment. It also gave her just one week to review the contest and prepare for another substantial field in China.
Qingdao Grand Prix
Swan returned to competition at the Qingdao Grand Prix, joining a 35-athlete women’s under-78kg field.
Following an opening-round bye, Swan faced China’s Huanting Xu in the round of 32.
Competing against a home athlete, Swan delivered a composed and effective performance. She secured two waza-ari scores to end the contest after two minutes and 30 seconds, advancing into the round of 16.
The victory set up a contest with Japan’s Mizuki Sugimura.
Swan matched the Japanese athlete throughout the regulation four minutes, preventing Sugimura from registering a score. While Sugimura accumulated two shidos, Swan completed regulation time without receiving a penalty.
With the scores locked at zero, the contest continued into golden score. Sugimura eventually found the decisive waza-ari ten seconds into the additional period, concluding a closely fought contest after four minutes and ten seconds.
Sugimura continued through the draw, defeating Slovenia’s Metka Lobnik in the quarter-final and Türkiye’s Tuana Gulenay in the semi-final. She ultimately collected the silver medal after being defeated by Germany’s Anna Monta Olek in the final.
Because Swan’s defeat came in the round of 16, she did not receive a repechage opportunity despite Sugimura advancing to the gold-medal contest.
Valuable competition ahead of Glasgow
While Swan finished outside the final placings at both tournaments, the two events formed an important part of her international preparation.
In Qingdao, she rebounded from her Ulaanbaatar result with a decisive victory over Xu before taking an eventual World Tour finalist into golden score. Completing the regulation period without a penalty against Sugimura was another encouraging feature of her performance.
The back-to-back tournaments also required Swan to manage international travel, recovery and competition preparation across consecutive weekends—an important challenge ahead of representing Australia at the Commonwealth Games.
Swan returned to competition several weeks later at the Sarajevo European Open, where she converted that preparation into a gold-medal performance before travelling to Glasgow.
Official contest records are available through Maria Swan’s JudoTV profile.
