Assunta Scutto (ITA), competing at -48 kg, already has 3 senior world medals from the last three years but until now no gold. At 23 she now has a full set and joins an exclusive group of judoka ever to have collected gold, silver and bronze among the senior categories. To say she was emotional about the win is an understatement, “It has been a difficult period and so my emotion exploded in that moment. I knew I could do it. Last year I stopped at the second step and I didn’t want to feel that sensation again.”
Ryuju Nagayama (JPN) has also never been world champion before, having followed Takato through the ranks. He was junior world champion exactly ten years ago but today he sealed his record with the senior title and was happy to have met that goal, “Today I wasn’t in my best condition but I’m happy with the results. It means I have more room to grow, so I will do better in the future.”
Day one is over, 7 days to go, 6 for individual categories and one day for the extraordinary mixed team event. Budapest is already delivering an outstanding spectacle, so tune in to JudoTV to follow all the action from 11am, local time, on day 2.