A series of failed attacks from Bellandi earned her a penalty early on but she kept up the pace in a way the German struggled to compete with. Olek then also attacked without conviction and began to accrue her own penalties. At full time it was even, 2:2, but still no positive scores.
In golden score they continued to cancel each other out, certainly not a contest defined by finesse. Olek found a new gear though and put Bellandi under a great deal of pressure, attacking with two strong makikomi movements in a row. The third was nowhere near as strong though, Olek letting go of the grip. The swing of advantage from one to the other continued.
Three and a half minutes into golden score, Bellandi found the energy to put in her best attack of the contest, a very tight seoi-otoshi but somehow Olek escaped. Bellandi attacked twice more but right on the limit between failed and false attacks. The contest went on but only just. After 4 and a half minutes of extra time there was an o-uchi-gari from Olek and then another seoi-otoshi from the Italian. It was so close all the way through but after 6 minutes of extra time, Olek attacked again with the o-uchi-gari and Bellandi countered it for a yuko.
Alice Bellandi is the only 2024 world or Olympic champion to take the 2025 gold so far, a remarkable achievement. This is also coach Antonio Ciano’s second world champion of the week after Susy Scutto won the -48 kg title on day one.
After the final, Alice said, “In my mind every time, what I saw was ‘Olympic champion is out. Olympic champion is out. I'm gonna fight in three days, in two days, three days, this was a challenge for me. But aside from this, you just need to be happy in what you're doing and the rest is just a bonus.”
The first bronze medal contest didn’t last long. Metka Lobnik (SLO) attacked first but unconvincingly and then succumbed to the excellent ne-waza of Kurena Ikeda (JPN). 2024 Tokyo grand Slam gold, 2025 Asian Championship gold and now a world bronze medal, 22-year-old Ikeda is building quite a catalogue!
In the second bronze medal contest, Zhenzhao Ma (CHN, an Olympic and world medallist already, stepped on to the tatami to face another Olympic and world medallist, Patricia Sampaio (POR). It was close but Sampaio had the upper hand, more robust, more aware of the time and how to manage the contest. She won on penalties but it was a convincing win, giving her a second senior world medal.
Final (-78 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-78 kg)
Final Results (-78 kg)
