In the first round, Ruslana Bulavina (UKR) was dispatched in less than three minutes with an immobilisation and in the second it took 1:39, sumi-gaeshi first and an osae-komi-waza. It then took Hayme more than 6 minutes to overcome the Italian Erica Simonetti in the semi-final but she did. The contract was fulfilled nevertheless, for the 2021 junior world champion.
In the second half of the draw, we witnessed a semi-final between Giovanna Santos (BRA) and Yuli Alma Mishiner (ISR) which turned to the advantage of the latter, thanks to a tactical victory.
The final saw Coralie Hayme and Yuli Alma Mishiner face off for the gold medal. Hayme took the first minute to observe her opponent before launching a right-handed o-soto-gari for waza-ari, that she transitioned on the floor to pin Yuli Alma Mishiner to secure the gold medal.
The first bronze medal pitted Maria Hoellwart (AUT) against Giovanna Santos (BRA). Hoellwart being penalised three times, the medal went to Giovanna Santos.
Once again Croatia placed an athlete in the final block, Helena Vukovic (CRO), to fight against Erica Simonetti (ITA) for the second bronze medal. Normal time ended with two shido apiece. In golden score, Erica Simonetti applied an almost perfect tsubame-gaeshi for waza-ari, destroying Vukovic's hopes of stepping on the podium. We have seen quite a few of those precise techniques over the weekend and that is a good sign of the quality of the judo that was practised.
Final (+78 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (+78 kg)
