Joanne Van Lieshout (NED), Gankhaich Bold (MGL), Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (CAN), Rafaela Silva (BRA) and Enkhrilen Lkhagvatogoo (MGL) could each have laid claim to the gold but when the final block began, one was in the final, 3 would be fighting for two bronze medals and one was not present. It had been an exciting preliminary session but the serious business of assigning medals was now in play.
Lkhagvatogoo, twice a world championship bronze medallist earned her place in the final and would be disappointed if she didn’t leave with gold. The less experienced Dali Liluashvili (RUS) was the judoka tasked with taking the gold from her, a judoka not short of power or determination.
Liluashvili put Lkhagvatogoo under pressure immediately and a fierce kumi-kata battle ensued. Liluashvili then went one step further and caught the Mongolian for a yuko and so the pace increased further.
When leading at this level, every judoka knows their rival will come forward and put them on the back foot as much as possible, searching for equalisers or penalties. In this case Liluashvili defended too vehemently and without any further attacks and so the penalties mounted up, the third arriving with only 4 seconds left on the clock. This was not so much that Lkhagvatogoo won the gold, more that Dali Liluashvili lost it; it was in her hands.
After the final the gold medallist said, “I have mixed feelings right now; after taking gold at the Asian Games, I finished only second in Dushanbe. I was incredibly determined to come back and secure the title here in Kazakhstan. I felt quite anxious after conceding the first score but I stayed focused and kept up the pressure until I won on penalties. I have put in a tremendous amount of effort into achieving this result.”
2024 world champion Van Lieshout stepped on to the field of play to face Olympic and double world champion Silva for a single bronze medal.
As the contest began, the attacks came swiftly but without result. However, an attack from Silva at the halfway point, which was not dangerous, put Van Lieshout in transition mode. Silva refused to stay still to allow the Dutch champion any advantage on the floor and stood up. As she did, Van Lieshout prepared an attack but Silva was ahead of her and hooked in with a ko-uchi-gake; yuko scored.
In the second bronze medal contest current world medallist Bold was focused on defeating Sara-Joy Bauer (GER). The young German has never competed in a World Junior Tour final block before and could have been overwhelmed but that isn’t how things went at all.
In the first exchange Bauer threw with an o-uchi-gari for a waza-ari. Shocked, Bold regrouped and tried to solve the tai-sabaki, engaging with an o-soto-gari that she felt had the positioning to score. Bauer, adaptable and committed, stepped back on her support leg and launched Bold with a massive o-soto-gaeshi. Sara-Joy Bauer, among all those world medallists, was a revelation; huge performance!
Final (-63 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-63 kg)
