Vallim won every round by the maximum score on her way to the final while Tombou had to work a little harder for it, but their gold medal contest was bound to be an exciting one!
Final: Clarisse Vallim (BRA) vs Valerie Tombou (BEL)
Clarisse Vallimhas outstanding sleeve control which uses to great effect attacking with seoi-otoshi frequently and powerfully. In this final, nothing changed! Valerie Tombou knew she needed to neutralise her opponents’ gripping but even as she worked to do that, Vallim was keeping her attack-rate up. This led to Tombou picking up two penalties in normal time.
In golden score, a new version of Valerie Tombou stepped forward, more aggressive, less willing to accept Vallim’s grips, and it put the Brazilian under pressure, visibly. However, with such a small margin of error left available to her, Tombou picked up the third shido after almost 7 minutes of fighting time. Vallim put her hands in the air and smiled at her coach, 3-time Olympian at -70 kg Maria Portela.
After the final, Clarisee Vallim said, “I feel so grateful to my technical staff, my family and especially my mum, who never let go of my hand. Honestly, it hasn't even hit me yet because it's such a huge achievement. During the competition, I just told myself, 'It's just one more fight.' My heart is full of joy for everyone who helped me get here, including my Flamengo Judo Club family.”
Bronze medal contest: Elene Kurgelia (GEO) vs Momoka Takeda (JPN)
Elene Kurgelia had been virtually planted in the semi-finals, leading her quarter-final against Diana Samoiliuk (UKR) by a waza-ari and 3 yuko scores, but a catastrophic mistake, a lapse in focus, led the Ukrainian to throw for a waza-ari and then hold her down for the remaining time. The devastated Georgian looked shocked. Coming into this bronze medal contest against the unknown Japanese competition in the group would be a test of character as well as judo.
Bronze medal contest: Viktorija Ragauskaite (LTU) vs Diana Samoiliuk (UKR)
Samoiliuk’s win in the quarter-final was a key indicator that she had medal-winning potential but Vallim was just too strong for her in their semi-final, throwing for ippon with seoi-otoshi after just half a minute of contest time. Samoiliuk had the long break between sessions to re-prepare but Ragauskaite was also on good form and arrived in the bronze medal contest buoyant after a win in the repechage.
Samoiliuk opened the contest with a huge osoto-makikomi off the first grip to put a waza-ari on her side of the board immediately. Ragauskaite struggled to keep up, unable to catch any useful grip. The contest slowed somewhat as the time went on. Samoiliuk added. Yuko to her tally but it was essentially inconsequential; she had already done enough.
Final (-70 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-70 kg)
Final Results (-70 kg)
