The final was tough for Lytvynenko, a series of high pressure exchanges in which Tcheumeo used all her experience to keep the young challenger at bay. A single yuko separated them, on paper, but the story wasn’t quite a simple as that; Audrey was in charge throughout!
World bronze medallist Emma Reid (GBR) suffered at the hands of her Japanese opponent in the quarter-final but didn’t allow herself to make the same mistake twice and for the rest of her contests she protected herself well in tachi-waza and unleashed her best work in ne-waza.
In the bronze medal contest Minju Kim (KOR) was no match for Reid’s well drilled sequences on the floor, succumbing to an osae-komi that somehow seemed inevitable.
Hongtao Wu (CHN) and Mizuki Hasegawa (JPN) fought for the second bronze medal, a very physical and positive fight. Although it appeared to be neck-and-neck from the beginning, Hasegawa had a plan and when the time was right she put it into action. A clean set-up in the kumi-kata phase put her in the perfect position and she entered for a brilliant ko-uchi-gake to earn the decisive score and her first World Judo Tour medal, a prize that brought a big smile to her face. Hasegawa has not fought on the WJT before so this is an outstanding result.
Final (-78 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-78 kg)
