Seeing 4-time Olympic medallist, London 2012 champion Idalys Ortiz (CUB) compete is always special. She won her first contest by shime-waza against Maan (IND) but then lost out to Milica Zabic (SRB) who arrived in Paris in great form. She had already dispatched Asya Tavano (ITA) in the first round in just a matter of seconds.
Ceric (BIH) lost her first contest in Rio in 2016, her second in Tokyo in 2021. Here in Paris she won two and won them well, both in ne-waza, an osae-komi-waza against Andrews (NZL) and then a very well placed shime-waza against Nunes (POR) who may have expected to beat the Bosnian. Ceric moved into the quarter-final against the number one seed, French darling, Romane Dicko.
Dicko’s win in that quarter-final was swift, holding Ceric with no chance for escape, dropping the Bosnian into the repechage. Kim (KOR) fought Souza (BRA) in their quarter-final, a much closer contest. Action throughout but with no score registered either way at full time meant golden score would be the answer and that answer came quickly. It took 9 seconds for Souza to latch on with a ko-soto-gake and combine it with a yoko-guruma for the score she needed to win.
In the third quarter-final Raz Hershko, already victorious over Kamps (NED), threw Zabic (SRB) twice to book her place in the second semi-final to face the winner of Ozdemir (TUR) and Sone (JPN), the current Olympic champion. Ozdemir, clearly in control, led most of the contest, forcing Sone to attack poorly. In golden score and with the penalties at 2 to 1 in favour of Ozdemir, the Turkish judoka held Sone for a waza-ari.
Semi-finals:
Dicko (FRA) vs Souza (BRA)
Hershko (ISR) vs Ozdemire (TUR)
Repechage
Ceric (BIH) vs Kim (KOR)
Zabic (SRB) vs Sone (JPN)