In the quarter-final Kim defeated the explosive Greek fighter, Elisavet Teltsidou, a four-time grand slam champion but at the category below. Teltsidou is gradually making her way in the new division though and fought hard to win the repechage final and place herself in the final block, her second time doing so this year at -78 kg.
Of the two Brazilian entrants in the category, today Beatriz Freitas was stronger. She passed Wang (CHN) and Issoufi (FRA) on her way to the semi-final where she lost against the Korean judoka. Freitas’ team mate Karol Gimenes was waiting for her in the repechage but she overcame that challenge to ensure she would appear in the afternoon session.
On the bottom half of the draw, it was Mao Izumi who proved to be the strongest competitor. Likhacheva (IJF), Gimenes (BRA) and Hoelterhoff (GER) suffered at her hands. Izumi made it to the final, the third grand slam final of her career. She was the gold medallist in Kazakhstan two years ago and now hoped to double her good fortune in the country.
Izumi and Kim faced off for the gold medal with the latter out-attacking Izumi right from the start. However the attacks lacked rotation and she put herself at risk of earning penalties instead of scores. The pace of attack certainly put Izumi off her stride and the Japanese judoka was given her first shido for non-combativity. Kim learned from the situation and added more and more rotation to her attacks until one produced the desired outcome, propelling Izumi on to her side for a yuko.
As the fight progressed, Izumi began to accelerate and with just under a minute to go sheglue her foot to Kim's ankle and threw with de-ashi-harai but it was just short of a side landing and so did not score. As the clock ticked down, Kim could sigh with relief and prepare to climb on to the top step of the podium.
In the first bronze medal contest Hoelterhoff (GER) took on Teltsidou (GRE) and in the frist minute scored twice, really putting the Greek under pressure, a sumi-gaeshi and an o-soto-gaeshi, each for a yuko. Teltsidou responded by throwing for her own yuko with a koshi-guruma and so the German decided to raise the pace and increase her lead again; another sumi-gaeshi for another yuko.
She finished the job with an o-uchi-gari for ippon with less than halfa minute to go. It was an all-action contest that ended with Julie Hoelterhoff winning her first grand slam medal.
To complete the podium line up, Ngelebeya (FRA) and Freitas (BRA) fought for the second bronze medal of the -78 kg category. For both fighters it was their first time in a grand slam final block and both came out hungry for the medal. Freitas logged the first score, entering with uchi-mata and earning herself a waza-ari. A little later she showed her skills in ne-waza too and finished the contest with a sode-guruma-jime. A huge smile spread across her face; a first bronze medal at this level for the young Brazilian.
Bronze Medal Fights (-78 kg)
