The disappointment continued for the home crowd in Pool B, where Hongyan Xie (CHN) also saw her campaign stopped at the quarter-final stage, defeated by Türkiye's Tugce Beder.
In the bottom half of the draw, quietly, Marina Vorobeva (RUS) worked her way through to the semi-finals, where she met China's last remaining medal hope, Wenna Zhuang (CHN). Unlike her teammates, Zhuang held her nerve, progressing into the final four confidently before defeating Vorobeva to secure her place in the gold medal contest. Awaiting her was Tugce Beder who had produced another impressive display by overcoming Kristina Dudina in the semi-final.
The final therefore featured Tugce Beder (TUR) and Wenna Zhuang (CHN), giving the home supporters one last opportunity to celebrate a gold. Beder made the stronger start, scoring a yuko with a well-executed yoko tomoe-nage. Zhuang, however, responded in magnificent fashion. A powerful right-sided o-soto-gari earned her a waza-ari and shifted the momentum completely in her favour.
As Beder pushed forward in search of an equaliser, the Chinese judoka struck again with just fifteen seconds remaining, adding a second waza-ari to seal victory and secure the host nation's first gold medal of the tournament. Qingdao could hardly have wished for a better opening.
Wenna Zhuang then said, "It is so exciting that I won. Although the fans supported me throughout the day, they also put me under a lot of pressure. It means everything to me to have won here in front of my family and friends because Qingdao is my home. I am delighted to have brought gold to China."
China's hopes of collecting a second medal rested on Xinran Hui, who faced Marina Vorobeva (RUS) in the first bronze medal contest. The former world number one put her quarter-final disappointment behind her quickly, controlling the contest before scoring a yuko with an osaekomi-waza to claim the day's first medal and China's first medal of the competition as the bronzes are assigned just ahead of the final.
The second bronze medal contest brought Merve Azak (TUR) and Kristina Dudina (RUS) together. Dudina wasted little time taking control, throwing with seoi-otoshi for waza-ari before moving seamlessly into shime-waza to force the submission and score ippon. It was a commanding display and earned the Russian judoka the first Grand Prix medal of her career.
Final (-48 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-48 kg)
