-52 kg: Uzbekistan's Prodigy Confirms Her Trajectory

From the beginning of the final block there was an expectant energy. The first repechage contest was a ne-waza battle from the very beginning. Pimenta (BRA) and Ballhaus (GER) Were tactical in their approach, not wanting to make a mistake in tachi-waza but both took on a whole different attitude on the ground, hunting for space and opportunity. Eventually, deep into golden score, it was the Brazilian who found her space to win by shime-waza and progress to the bronze medal contest.

In the second repechage contest Gefen Primo (ISR) took on Reka Pupp (HUN) but the Hungarian took only 45 seconds to dispatch her opponent with a perfectly timed juji-gatame. The day two final block began as a ne-waza festival!

The semi-final line-up fully respected the current world ranking despite the shock defeat of Uta Abe in round two. She was not seeded and perhaps that was her downfall as it was the world number one who threw her in the end.

In the first semi-final, Tokyo -48 kg Olympic champion Distria Krasniqi (KOS) faced double Olympic medallist and current world champion Odette Giuffrida (ITA). The Italian was more active from the beginning but without making real contact. Krasniqi’s attacks, though not frequent, were more incisive but it was a failure to grip which eventually decided the contest, the Kosovan winning, 3 penalties to one. This is an outstanding result, putting her in her second final in a row but this time at a new weight. Not many judoka have ever done that!

As the second semi-final was announced, Keldiyorova waited on the edge of the tatami for Amandine Buchard to arrive. The crowd cheered loudly for their fighter but the Uzbek remained stony faced, concentrated on the task at hand. Even the home crowd couldn’t offer enough extra energy to counteract Keldiyorova’s level of preparation. It was a close contest but the Uzbek world number one found an entry inside the last minute and managed to land a waza-ari, one which, despite every effort from Buchard and coach Christophe Massina, there was no coming back from.

In the first bronze medal contest, a very tactical encounter, the penalties rained down on what was not an inactive schedule. Giuffrida took the third shido to place 5th at her third Olympic Games, after a silver and a bronze in the previous editions, while twenty-five year old Larissa Pimenta claimed her first medal on either the world or Olympic stage.

The second of the three -52 kg medal contests saw home favourite Buchard face Reka Pupp, again a cagey affair, at least to begin with, both fighters desperate not to lose but committed to the cause. As the time ticked on each became aware of the need to be incisive but it took 7 minutes of contest time for Amandine Buchard to finally land her kata-guruma and send Pupp into 5th place for the second cycle in a row. Buchard though takes her second Olympic medal, a bronze after her silver in Tokyo. This is becoming quite a distinguished career.

The final was pegged to be a little different by most but was exactly as planned for the two competitors. Krasniqi opened with a powerful o-uchi-gari but Keldiyorova braced against it and replied with a seoi-otoshi for waza-ari. With two minutes left on the clock, holding that score against someone as strong and experienced as the Kosovan champion would be a tall order but beating the best is Keldiyorova’s speciality. She didn’t attempt to just defend but continued to attack. The barrage from Krasniqi was not effective enough and Diyora could still make space for her own scoring attempts. She held her lead comfortably until the time ran out and became Uzbekistan’s first ever Olympic champion! If you beat Abe, Buchard and Krasniqi all on one day, you deserve all the gold medals there are. This champion chose her destiny.

As she came off the tatami, as Olympic champion, Diyora Keldiyorova said, “It was such a hard job to get here and I have only thought about the Olympic Games, all the time, just the Games. It wasn’t just about the medal but specifically about the gold medal. It’s such an important day for me, my parents, family, all of us. This is a whole team medal, for me, for Marko, it’s Uzbekistan’s gold.”