The fall of the top four wasn’t the only surprise of the day. In round one, Jatin (IND), with no reference at all on the international scene, beat French competitor David Iurcovschi, ranked 23rd in the world and with several cup medals to his name. Jatin (IND) was under a lot of pressure and two penalties down against his French opponent but he found a tiny space and threw for waza-ari with ko-uchi-gake only seconds from the end. There was no way for the Frenchman to equalise and he had to concede a fight he was certain he would win.
Eighth seed Derek Marczak (POL) fell to the pace of his Czech opposition, also in round one, another unseeded victory. The only seeded judoka to make it to the final block at all was Cremers (BEL) but a tough bronze medal contest awaits him in the afternoon session, against Abbasov (AZE).
In the -63 kg category, 5 of the top 8 seeds made it to medal fights, the top two having to battle for the same bronze medal. Oruc (TUR) has been at the top of her game, a world number one for two years but in Lima she couldn’t quite obey her own ranking, losing out Hanna Zaitseva’s (POL), the fifth seed, in their semi-final. In tachi-waza the powerful Turk was edging it but the Pole caught her in ne-waza and she was unprepared to fight off such a strong armlock.
The surprise on the category was the Japanese judoka, Honoka Kimura. She has only one previous reference on her international ticket and it was from the Malaga junior cup this year, an age band up. There she took a bronze medal which should have been a clue for her cadets that she would not be a walkover despite having no cadet ranking. She flew through the group throwing or holding all opposition for ippon after ippon. Slick turnovers and dominant gripping signed her invitation to the final.
At -73 kg there was a similar story to that of the other men’s weight group, none of the top seeds making it to the final. It was Jasur Ibadli (AZE) who really upset the expected order of things. He was phenomenal at -66 kg, amassing an impressive catalogue of results including an EYOF medal. His spectacular rise at -73 includes already holding a European cadet bronze won in Sofia in June. He can always be relied up to throw and to throw big! He took out the number two and number seven seeds in his quarter before then beating Noah Boue (FRA), 3rd seed, in his semi-final.
Ibadli’s opposition in the final, Timur Davidov (IJF) also came from outside of the top seeds, overcoming the cadet world number one and current European cadet champion, Bogdan Velickovic (SRB), knocking him out of the event.
The last category of the day to summarise is the -57 kg women’s group. Unusual for the day but following the statistical expectations, Manon Agati-Alouache (FRA) passed stiff opposition to reach the final. She’s the world number 3 and was at the top of the sheet after the draw.
The number two seed almost made it too, only losing out to her teammate for a place in the final. Terbish (MGL) had a great morning, passing Canadian and Japanese opponents before having to face her higher ranked teammate. Mashbat has won her last 4 cups, 2 junior and two cadet, but Terbish was too much for her in Lima. She will fight for bronze in the final block but there are no guarantees she will be on podium as her opponent, Bosiek (IJF) is ready for anything. She only made one mistake today and doesn’t intend to make another.
Tune in to JudoTV to catch all the final block action live.