Fawaz used every ounce of energy at her disposal, her own and that of the arena, to pull off a huge win. She attacked with a great flurry of o-uchi-gari and uchi-mata attacks, dangerous to both the front and back, and when Nelson Levy defended them successfully and applied pressure with the kumi-kata, Fawaz used her opponent’s momentum perfectly and threw with a huge sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi for ippon.
In the first bronze medal contest, Faiza Mokdar and Megumi Fuchida (JPN) were even throughout. They didn’t hold back but were unable to register any positive scores in normal time. In golden score Fuchida switched tactics and went to ground, turning and holding her French opponent for the required 5 seconds, notching up a yuko and the win. It was a sensible switch!
On the adjacent mat Vellozzi wanted to prove herself in front of her home crowd and she came out strongly against Eteri Liparteliani (GEO). The Frenchwoman threw early with a huge, locked in o-soto-gari for waza-ari before registering a yuko for a continuous transition into the osae-komi but the Georgian escaped. A ko-uchi-gake extended the lead further, adding another yuko to the board. With 25 seconds left on the clock, against a desperate uchi-mata attempt from Liparteliani, Vellozzi scored again, this time with a counter to the uchi-mata.
As the clock ran out Vellozzi celebrated her win, a truly superior performance in what should have been a much closer contest. Liparteliani had not expected such a barrage of attacks from the relative newcomer but Ophelie Vellozzi walked away with her first grand slam medal.
Final (-57 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-57 kg)
