-48 kg: Bavuudorj Wins With Power and Impeccable Timing

That does not necessarily translate to a drop in form, rather to a period of building and analysis, perhaps a transition even from excellent to something even stronger. In Abu Dhabi it could be time to see the fruit of this period, to know how Scutto is positioned less than ten weeks before the Olympic Games.

It turns out that she is back to incredible form. Esposito (MLT) lasted 13 seconds. Giliazova (AIN) was thrown twice in a minute and a half. Beder (TUR) put up a good fight, throwing the Italian for a waza-ari early on, but Scutto thought nothing of it, turned the Turk over and held her for ippon, also in a minute and a half. That led her to the semi-final, a contest against a worthy but perhaps unexpected opponent.

Tara Babulfath (SWE) is only just 18, young but not inexperienced. She’s collecting scalps, knowledge and notoriety on a monthly basis and following gold at the Baku Grand Slam and bronze in Tashkent she is in contention for a Games ticket. In the blue continental quota zone ahead of the Abu Dhabi World Championships, a good day, a very good day would push her to not far outside the seedings for Paris.

Babulfath began slowly, passing Mexico’s Edna Carrillo with a hold down in golden score. She kept grinding out the exchanges and took a similar win against Tanzer (AUT) next but in normal time. Osae-komi again against Martinez Abelenda (ESP) in the round of 16 meant a top 8 finish no matter what happened next.

Ganbaatar (MGL) was next to fall, thrown for waza-ari with de-ashi-harai at 2 and a half minutes but she doubled down and held her for ten seconds almost on the bell to find herself in a senior world semi-final. Scutto, though, was in no mind to give up the opportunity to reach her first world final and she threw within the first minute for a small score. Although she was later almost held by the teenager, she managed to keep her score and at full time Scutto advanced to the final with a look of relief on her face.

With the number one seed through, the number two, on the bottom half of the draw, had a lot of work to do to match her but she set about doing just that. Abuzhakynova's (KAZ) first contest set a tough precedent for the day. She threw Ersin (TUR) for a waza-ari with o-uchi-gari but was then caught with an equaliser, a fast seoi-otoshi. It wasn’t until 45 seconds into golden score that the Kazakh came up with an immense utsuri-goshi, throwing for ippon and moving forward.

Stangar (SLO) and Ferreira then fell too and the Kazakh walked into the semi-final to face Bavuudorj, respecting the seeeidng perfectly. The Mongolian had dealt with Laborde (USA), Rishony (ISR) and Costa (POR), not an easy list to wade through. She beat all of them with power and confidence, a lethal mix which she also applied against Abuzhakynova. Bavuudorj’s route to the final was impressive and the style would perhaps not be to Scutto’s liking.

The first bronze medal was going to head home with either Beder (TUR) or Abuzhakynova (KAZ). The latter already has a world bronze medal and knows what it takes to get there. Competing against the fast-footed Turk is never easy but Abuzhakynova countered an ashi-waza attempt early to put the first score on the board. Beder continued to throw in a number of sutemi-waza attacks but none strong enough to unbalance the Kazakh. She changed tack and went for a kata-guruma but Abuzhakynova was ready for that too and caught Beder with a beautiful sukashi to seal the result.

Costa (POR) and Babulfath (SWE) fought for the second bronze medal. The contest began evenly but Babulfath gets more dangerous the deeper a fight goes. Her ability to close the space down in ne-waza and clamp her opponents down, inescapably, is becoming something special and against Costa she did this again. She freed her trapped leg and held on with every ounce of strength she had to become a first year junior with a senior world bronze medal.

In the final there was a real chess match in play but at high speed. Scutto's snappy o-uchi-gari and lightning fast seoi-otishi techniques were all atttempted while Bavuudorj worked at the hips and with more dominant gripping. The Mongolian never skipped a beat, coming nowhere near being thrown and eventually, with only seconds left on the clock, she countered another seoi-otoshi attempt with a very tight sumi-gaeshi for ippon. Bavuudorj is the -48 kg world champion in Olympic year and will arrive in Paris with the red backpatch on. She is the fiorst Mongolian woman to win the world championships since Munkhbat won in Rio De Janeiro in 2013.

Scutto takes silver, a fantastic result for her in an otherwise challenging year.