-70kg: Promise Delivered

Saki Niizoe of Japan is only 26 years old but has been one of the strongest players in the -70kg category for nearly 7 years, consistently. She has won a medal in all but 2 of her 19 IJF World Judo Tour appearances so far, including 8 golds, but only made her world championship debut in Tashkent last year, as she was usually left out of the squad in favour of Chizuru Arai, the eventual Tokyo Olympic champion. With Arai retiring after the Olympics, Niizoe finally had the chance to show what she could do at the highest level. In Tashkent, she earned a bronze medal but was certainly capable of more.

25-year-old Giovanna Scoccimarro is a former world junior champion and was Germany’s representative at -70kg at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. Like Niizoe, she first appeared on the tour in 2016 and has been winning medals since 2018 but with 3 appearances at the senior world championships under her belt, she was still yet to achieve a top 8 finish.

In Doha, both fighters carved their paths to the final. Niizoe began the day with a hard-fought win over Goshen (ISR). Both players attacked strongly and consistently and the fight was terminated without any penalties on the board. Niizoe was able to throw with uchi-mata for waza-ari 45 seconds into golden score. Her 3rd round contest against 2017 world silver medallist Perez (PUR) was ended sooner, as the Japanese judoka threw with uchi-mata using two sleeves, for waza-ari. Then later she turned and held the Puerto Rican for a decisive second score.

In the quarter-final lay a familiar opponent for Niizoe; 2019 world champion Marie Eve Gahie (FRA). Prior to Doha, the pair had fought 11 times across all competitions and so know each other’s judo inside out. Niizoe led the head-to-head 7-4 though and extended this lead even further, as a bear hug attempt from Gahie caused her to pick up a third and final penalty. 

In the semi-final yet another familiar face awaited the Japanese, that of defending and double world champion Barbara Matic (CRO), over whom Niizoe has an even better record, winning 7 fights to Matic’s 1. Matic was unable create history and defend her title for the second time, as she was thrown with ko-soto-gake with 15 seconds left on the clock.

The unseeded Scoccimarro performed some heroics en route to the final, winning 5 matches and defeating all of the other Olympic medallists from Tokyo along the way. First there was a tactical victory over Drysdale Daley (JAM), then an uchi-mata ippon after 1 minute of her contest with Niangi (ANG). Round 3 saw the first of her Olympic scalps, as she won out on penalties against bronze medallist Sanne Van Dijke (NED) after an endurance-testing 9 minutes of fighting. In the quarter-final she took down the other bronze medallist, Madina Taimazova (AIN), again in golden score, with a well-timed ko-uchi-gari. Then only Michaela Polleres (AUT), the silver medallist in Tokyo, stood between Scoccimarro and the final. Polleres has been on scintillating form of late, winning the recent Jerusalem Masters and the Tashkent Grand Slam, but Scoccimarro kept her nerve and her balance, to throw Polleres with o-uchi-gari deep into the contest. This win confirmed that there would be a brand new world champion in the division.

Unfortunately for the German her heroics ended there, as Niizoe took a dominant victory. With 2 minutes gone, the Japanese hooked Scoccimarro’s leg for ko-uchi-gari, before quickly changing direction to throw with uchi-mata for waza-ari, landing directly in osae-komi. She secured the pin comfortably and with it her first world title; the joyous tears followed quickly. Scoccimarro will be disappointed not to have put up more of a fight but will surely still be celebrating a brilliant first world championship medal, the first for her country at these championships.

In the first of the bronze medal matches, Polleres faced Katie-Jemima Yeats-Brown (GBR), who was on fire, knocking out Scoccimarro’s teammate Butkereit in round 2 and Gahie (FRA) in the repechage. Polleres took charge in the fight however, scoring ippon with okuri-eri-jime to claim her second world bronze medal.

The other bronze was contested between Matic and Elvismar Rodriguez (VEN), who had already achieved her best result at a world championship. The defending champion dominated the fight, causing Rodriguez to pick up two shidos but couldn’t find a way through. After fighting right-handed for most of the contest, Matic switched to her left side in golden score, catching the Venezuelan with uchi-mata to score waza-ari. Despite not defending her title, Matic was visibly delighted to add another world medal to her resume. 

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