The final saw Tamaoki up against Georgian trailblazer Eteri Liparteliani, 3 senior European medals and two Olympic 5th places, but never has she fought for a world medal before, not since becoming junior world champion in 2019. She came out hunting the scores, aiming to throw from the deep cross-grip immediately. It took less than a minute to register a waza-ari with an uchi-mata-makikomi but she very nearly gave it all away as Tamaoki was just centimetres away from securing a pin on the ground; it was close!
Momo Tamaoki could not find a solution against the onslaught and it didn’t take long for Liparteliani to double her score and make history for Georgia, their first ever world champion among the women’s categories. She was magnificent from round one onwards and now she has a world title, an incredible moment and an incredible champion.
The first bronze medal contest featured Brazil’s Shirlen Nascimento and Turkmenistan’s Maysa Pardayeva, just 20 years old. Neither has fought for a senior world medal before and both arrived with cracks in their game, compared with their dominance and confidence in the morning session. The prospective medal added a lot of pressure and neither wanted to make a mistake that cost them that prize.
Nascimento struggled under the gripping power of Pardayeva but found her feet and used ashi-waza to break up the Turkmen athlete’s momentum. As the gong sounded at the end of normal time, Nascimento was in the process of throwing with ko-uchi-gake. At first a yuko was given but after review it was taken off and replaced with a shido for a leg-grab. However, as the golden score period began, Nascimento did exactly the same technique again but, this time, with the correct grip. It was a waza-ari score and the 25-year-old could finally celebrate her first senior world medal.
In the second bronze medal contest Shukurjon Amino (UZB had a tough task ahead, facing double Olympic medallist Sarah-Leonie Cysique (FRA), the latter carrying great support from the crowd with her, a large cohort of French spectators in the arena. She was almost thrown with a makikomi early on and also began to pick up penalties but she recovered well and went about securing her own advantage, using the kumi-kata phases expertly to force the flow her way; Aminova received her first shido.
As the time passed, Cysique became stronger and stronger and at full-time was leading the pace and the movement but will no real attack to speak of. It took another shido against the Uzbek athlete and 1 minute and 42 seconds of extra time for Cysique to eventually find her moment, throwing with her own soto-makikomi to take the medal.
Final (-57 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-57 kg)
