-57kg: O Canada!

On the one hand, the double world champion Deguchi eliminated Eunsong Park (KOR) with an immobilisation and then successively defeated Altantsetseg Batsukh (UAE) and Kseniia Galitskaia (AIN), while her teammate and former world champion reaped victories against Anastasija Sokirjanska (LAT) by two waza-ari, Nekoda Smythe-Davis (GBR) by waza-ari then ippon and finally Mimi Huh (KOR).

For the moment, neither Deguchi nor Klimkait seem ready to let go of anything. In a little over a year, the Paris 2024 Games will open and in the absence of knowing with certainty who will participate for Canada, the country with the maple leaf has a good chance of appearing on the podium.

Deguchi delivered the perfect tactical contest, totally blocking her opponent. Thus Klimkait was unable to attack and drop under Deguchi's centre of gravity. She then just had to wait for the penalties to drop and they did quite rapidly. It was a gold medal for Deguchi, who clearly dominated the category. Both athletes can tonight sing 'Oh Canada,’ one probably louder than the other.

Telma Monteiro (POR) is a living legend of world judo. Multiple times a world medallist and an Olympic medallist, she is still in the race for a fifth qualification, for the Paris Games. The points won in Ulaanbaatar now count for 100%, so it is certain that her presence in the final block of the day further strengthens her chances. To get on the podium, she still had to face Mimi Huh. Aware of Mimi Huh's power, Telma Monteiro was using a combination of attacks coming from afar and sutemi-waza that protected her from big throws. These tactics did the trick as Mimi Huh was penalised one more time than Monteiro during normal time. However, as golden score was unfolding, Monteiro was penalised a second time too. After four minutes of additional time, Mimi Huh eventually caught Monteiro with a shime-waza for ippon and the bronze medal was hers.

Nekoda Smythe-Davis (GBR) offered herself a great opportunity to climb on the third step of the podium, against Kseniia Galitskaia (AIN). Apart from her clean loss to Klimkait, Smythe-Davis showed some good things during the preliminary rounds of the morning session. The bronze medal match was quite balanced in terms of score, as none were inscribed on the scoreboard. Smythe-Davis was slightly dominating with the kumi-kata but with the side position of her opponent, it was difficult to find throwing opportunities. It was eventually Kseniia Galitskaia who scored first with a variation of yoko-guruma. Nekoda Smythe-Davis, to avoid the landing, put her hands down and so the throw was awarded a waza-ari. The bronze medal goes to Kseniia Galitskaia.