The contest was much closer than Kondo might have expected, Perez Soler arriving with a solid tactical plan. A clean fight, intelligent work from both athletes but as half-time came and went, one needed to make a break for the finish line and that was Kondo. She turned in with a fantastic, low tai-otoshi and threw Perez Soler for a waza-ari, converting it to ippon on the ground. Japan took the first gold of the tournament!
World number one Abiba Abuzhakynova (KAZ) suffered a comprehensive, shock defeat against unseeded judoka Vera Wandel (NED) earlier in the day but still kept the podium within reach. She faced Wandel’s teammate, Amber Gersjes, for a bronze medal.
Abuzhakynova attempted the first attack of the contest, a tomoe-nage which failed due to Gersjes thorough analysis of her opposition. Gersjes then attacked with a seoi-otoshi but the Kazakh athlete was also ready and so the contest moved ahead in this vein. AT the halfway point, wit ha shido apiece on the board, Gersjes came close to a ne-waza victory, a sankaku turnover that she couldn’t quite complete. As the final seconds ticked away, each picked up another penalty and so the contest went into golden score, precarious for both!
No sooner than the extra time began, Amber Gersjes found her hook and caught Abuzhakynova with an o-soto-gari for a yuko. The bronze medal is going home to the Netherlands with Gersjes and the world number one goes home empty-handed.
Laura Martinez Abelenda (ESP), aiming at placing a second Spanish flag above the podium, stepped on to the tatami to face Wandel. Up to half-time it was Wandel leading the battle, attacking more and coming very close to a yuko score early on. However, against the run of play, as the last 90 seconds began, Martinez Abelenda launched at her opponent with a powerful ko-uchi-gake and scored a waza-ari. This was the deciding moment in the contest and the bronze medal put that second Spanish flag exactly where Laura Martinez Abelenda planned for it to be.
Final (-48 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-48 kg)
