It must be said that the Hungarian was defeated by top seed Larissa Pimenta (BRA), who did not care about who she was facing and went through the first rounds without trembling. It was not an easy route though. After an initial bye, Pimenta faced Martina Castagnola (ITA) and had to wait for golden score and the third penalty to take the win. Against Roza Gyertyas, golden score was needed again, a long golden score, as Pimenta scored the delivering waza-ari after 5 minutes and 33 seconds of additional time. The quarter-final was a little easier as the Brazilian judoka scored ippon after only 1 minute and 27 seconds with a shime-waza. Opposed by her teammate Jessica Pereira in the semi-final, Pimenta eventually won her ticket to enter the final.
In the second half of the draw, after the early loss of Gultaj Mammadaliyeva, things became more clear, opening the door to an underdog. Binta Ndiaye (SUI) is not unknown on the circuit as she has participated in several World Judo Tour events, but with no success so far. The double junior world medallist is still a big name in the making and today she built a part of it by reaching the final to face Pimenta.
For her first final at that level, Ndiaye was not impressed. She put pressure on her opponent immediately and was close to concluding with a first osae-komi-waza from which Pimenta escaped before the ten seconds that would have meant waza-ari. The Swiss judoka kept pushing but it was then the Brazilian's turn to put pressure on the edge of the competition area and suddenly to drop under her opponent with a superb seoi-otoshi for ippon. Pressure did well for Pimenta, who will collected some precious points here in Linz.
The first bronze medal contest saw Maria Siderot (POR) and Alyssia Poulange (FRA) face one another for a place on the podium. The contest was quite balanced as the end of normal time was approaching. It is with a last seoi-otoshi that Siderot stole the medal from Alyssia Poulange and reached the podium, the third medal in a grand prix for the Portuguese judoka.
Naomi Van Krevel (NED) and Jessica Pereira (BRA) qualified for the second bronze medal contest, the latter hoping she could join her teammate on the podium. She was almost there when she threw Van Krevel with an uchi-mata for ippon but the video was clear showing that Pereira's head touched the ground first. Since there is no technique in judo where the head touches the ground first and since this could be a dangerous move, Pereira was logically disqualified sending the bronze medal to Naomi Van Krevel.
Final (-52 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-52 kg)
