However, Croatia has a strong women’s team, not just one champion. At the Zagreb Grand Prix, current world number one Lara Cvetko, her little sister Jana, Andela Violic and Karla Kulic all put themselves under the spotlight for Croatia at -70 kg, and Lara Cvetko made it to the final block, but not to the final.
Clemence Eme (FRA) had a spectacular morning. She is 28 and has no result on the World Judo Tour but does have a junior world medal and therefore should never be discounted, it is a mark of future possibility which she finally realised in Zagreb.
In the final, Eme faced well known world-class Japanese competitor Shiho Tanaka, the current world champion. It was a close contest, perhaps closer than anyone expected, taking Tanaka 6 minutes of contest time to find the right moment to score. She had been trying in ne-waza but nothing had worked and in tachi-waza things were even. It was a sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi two minutes into extra time that earned the winning yuko and Tanaka’s gold medal.
In the first bronze medal contest, home girl Cvjetko had to face a determined Aleksandra Andric (SRB), who actually scored in the first exchange with an uchi-mata, much to the audience’s dismay. They cheered ever louder and Lara got down to work but it wasn’t until the last 90 seconds that she finally found her rhythm and her grip. Piling the pressure on, she came forward more and more but Andric resisted, determined to hang on to her yuko, which she did.
Irenę Pedrotti (ITA) and Katarzyna Sobierajska (POL) stepped on to the tatami for the second bronze medal contest of the category. It was an all-action contest but it took until the halfway point for a score to appear, a waza-arises assigned to Pedrotti for a seoi-otoshi. The Polish judoka slipped off the wrong side of it but the landing remained scorable.
From that point on the Italian struggled against Sobierajska’s gripping and picked up two penalties, not an enviable position with more than a minute still to survive. She did survive it though, just! Pedrotti had her medal and a place on the podium in Zagreb.
Final (-70 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-70 kg)
