Christal Clear

Christa Deguchi has a style that our colleague Jo Crowley describes as "cautious, intelligent and humble." Okay. We know that the Grand Prix Zagreb was her first international tournament in 2022 and that we had to follow her closely, just like we did with her compatriot Jessica Klimkait in Budapest, because they are the last two world champions at this weight and they are called to meet face to face in Tashkent. What we saw was a Deguchi less dominant than usual, but better than in recent times, more patient and calm. She had to squeeze those virtues to the full against Mina Libeer. The first time we saw the Belgian, she was wearing glasses and reading a book, looking like an inveterate librarian. Then we looked at her arms and realised that she was being taken seriously. Against Deguchi she forced the golden score period and presented a very nice frontal battle for the spectator and very demanding for Deguchi, who won by ippon, but left a few feathers along the way. Apparently she recovered them, because the Slovenian Kajzer put up little resistance and fell by ippon with extreme ease. 

We haven't talked about Eteri Liparteliani yet, because she deserves a separate chapter. If we talk about Georgia and judo, she is undoubtedly the most famous woman and the one who has achieved, on her own merits, that people no longer only talk about Georgian judo in masculine terms. At the moment she is number four in the world and has won two bronzes, in the European Championships and in Tbilisi. She arrived in Zagreb wanting to party, the same one that the Cuban Arnaes Odelín García had. The Cuban scored waza-ari first, headed steadily to the final and had everything under control until Liparteliani had a stroke of genius and scored ippon with just a few seconds left. 

With an opposition of styles in a final between two big shots, Liparteliani dished out attacks right from the start and disturbed Deguchi who was slow to get into the right rhythm. When she did, she brought out her entire class and scored with a beautiful o-uchi-gari that has returned her to the top of a podium for the first time in a year. The Canadian, like Abe, also had a message, a Christal clear message. 

The last two medals of the day went to Belgium and Mongolia. Libeer defeated Odelín García by ippon and Ichinkhorloo Munkhtsedev did the same against Kajzer.