-48kg: The Professional

There were a lot of new faces, a youth who wanted to bathe in the pool of the older ones. In order not to drown, to be able to swim with the best, you have to show attitude, attack without fear and not get nervous because here there is no float to hold on to. Among the candidates for the title, the first to leave early was Shira Rishony. The Israeli was eliminated by the excellent South African Geronay Whitebooi, whom we hadn't seen since Mongolia and when she goes to a tournament she leaves her skin out on the mat. The first seed, Julia Figueroa, gave a reality check to the Turkish Merve Azak, author of a huge ippon in the first round against the Brazilian Alexia Nascimento. The Spanish took twenty seconds to put the Turkish where she wanted, on the ground, to immobilise her and teach her that a spectacular victory can be a prelude to a quick and cruel defeat because that is what the highest level means. Figueroa is one of those who does not change when things work. Of course, her fight against the Kazakh Abiba Abuzhakynova was more demanding and they reached golden score, where the Spanish solved it with her traditional ne-waza, an ippon and she was off to the semi-finals. 

Figueroa’s rival came from the confrontation between the Portuguese Catarina Costa and the Serbian Milica Nikolic, veterans of the circuit and two whom Figueroa knows very well. Costa was the winner but lost many feathers against Nikolic. In fact, Figueroa greeted her with waza-ari, which was also her way of saying that her judo is not just ne-waza. Figueroa qualified for her first final since the Hungary Grand Slam and her rival arrived from the Italian showdown. On one side Francesca Milani and on the other, the magnificent Assunta Scutto. We say magnificent because she is like those child prodigies who pass a university degree at the age of fifteen. Scutto, junior world champion and third in Tashkent, is called to pick up the baton from Figueroa's generation, but the problem is that you shouldn’t sell the bear's skin before hunting it and Milani had the face of a very angry bear, so much so that she broke the forecasts with a supersonic ippon that left Scutto speechless and eliminated. Prodigy or not, and she is, the only sure thing in judo is that nothing is sure. It was Milani's day, as it was Figueroa's. Do you agree Nikoloz? He does.

Figueroa tells us before the fight that Milani is very strong and her tactic is to block her. Milani doesn't say anything to us but enters the tatami like a hurricane. The Spanish endures but suffers; the Italian is taller and seems superior, but it is only an appearance and Figueroa has years of experience. In short, it boils down to that, knowing how to do things in circumstances with as much stress as there is in a final. Never underestimate shido though, because they often determine the outcome of a fight and Figueroa racked up two-for-one from Milani. They forced the Spaniard to attack and she did so successfully, scoring a fabulous ippon, winning her first gold on the world judo tour since 2019 and her first medal in Abu Dhabi, the only tournament on the circuit in which she had not won metal. All this comes a week after finishing fifth, that is, disappointed, in Tashkent. She is what is called a professional, the one who gets up after tripping. Olé Julia.

Scutto against Abuzhakynova is the generation that pushes hard. The medals are already being collected, so soon, and it is possible that, sooner than some think, they will fight for gold. In Abu Dhabi it was the first bronze. The Kazakh countered an attack by the Italian from the start and scored waza-ari. Scutto was too impatient and made the same mistake again. Abuzhakynova scored again and took the bronze. Ok, Scutto is a prodigy but she still has a lot to learn and that can only be done by competing.

The second bronze was the opportunity for Costa to redeem herself and for Zongying Guo to confirm our analysis of the Chinese team. The truth is that this fight was very tactical, unattractive to less experienced eyes, but in the end there was the same reward: a medal. Golden score came, shido everywhere and a little more action on both sides, but nothing definitive, until the referee disqualified the Portuguese. It’s a good medal for China and the first for Guo in a grand slam.