-52kg: Giuffrida, Right on Time

A silver medallist at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and bronze medallist five years later at the Tokyo Games, she has just finished on the third step of the podium at the World Judo Championships - Doha 2023. To this, let's add three medals at World Judo Masters, thirteen grand slam medals and seven grand prix podia, just that! The first mention of the transalpine champion dates back to 2011, when she participated in the junior world championships, in Cape Town, South Africa, and her first grand prix podium was in Samsun in Türkiye in 2014.

So, it wasn't too surprising to find her as the number one seed here in Astana. However, as we have seen during the recent events of the World Judo Tour, being number one is not always a guarantee of success. Recent competitions have indeed proven to be more open than usual, offering more chances for underdogs to shine. With this chance, Odette Guiffrida did not leave it to the other athletes, since she qualified for the final comfortably.

In front of her, we found a young Japanese girl, with an already interesting track record, since it was Ryoko Takeda, double world champion, from the cadet and junior categories. Her junior title dates back to 2018 but she has since won only one grand slam medal, although it was recently, in Tel Aviv last February. Who from Giuffrida or Takeda would touch the gold of the day?

The answer is Giuffrida, who showed all her skills and experience by scoring a few seconds before the end, after a quite balanced contest, with a ko-soto gari. The waza-ari was right on time and a second gold for Italy in Astana, already!

The match for the first bronze medal was between Kseniya Danilovich (AIN) and Sita Kadamboeva (UZB) and the victory went to Uzbekistan, after Sita Kadamboeva performed an immobilisation for ippon.

Amber Ryheul (BEL) and Gultaj Mammadaliyeva (AZE) battled for a place on the podium too. With the third penalty being given to Amber Ryheul before the end of the contest, the bronze medal went to Gultaj Mammadaliyeva.

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