Nami Nabekura defended her women's 63-kg title Saturday at the Zagreb Grand Prix, a three-day judo tournament in Croatia.
The 21-year-old Nabekura defeated Rio de Janeiro Olympic gold medalist Tina Trstenjak of Slovenia by ippon in the final. She was the only Japanese winner among a total of four men's and women's classes contested on the second day of the meet at Zagreb Arena.
In the women's 70-kg event, Yoko Ono claimed her first Grand Prix silver medal after losing in the final to Marie Eve Gahie of France. Ono came third at a 2013 meet in Ulan Bator and also in 2011 in Amsterdam.
Sotaro Fujiwara finished third in the men's 81-kg competition following a loss to Italy's Antonio Esposito. Dominic Ressel of Germany won the event.
The world championships will start on Sept. 20 in Baku, Azerbaijan, following next month's Budapest Grand Prix in Hungary.