Koga 1 - Europe 0

This is what is happening to Catarina Costa. Her excellent silver medal at the European Championships in Sofia and her gold in Lisbon have catapulted the Portuguese judoka to fourth place in the world ranking and first seed in Zagreb. When one is the favourite on paper, the spotlights are directed towards her irreversibly. Costa was blinded by the spotlights and said goodbye to Croatia through the back door after being defeated by the American Maria Celia Laborde in the second round. 

All eyes then focused on Wakana Koga, 21 years old, from the tremendous Japanese school. Koga got rid of the Belgian Petit and the French Urdiales easily, before leaving the Israeli Rishony in a ditch. For a bit, we could have thought of a duel between Asia and Europe, Koga against the others, to establish a hegemony. There was a fourth European as the last bastion against Koga's push. It was in the semi-finals and that bastion is called Milica Nikolic. In the morning the Serbian had arrived at the stadium smiling. The message was clear, she had slept well. Two victories to begin with and a first level test against the Spanish Laura Martínez Abelenda, which the Serbian solved in six seconds with an ippon that could mark a career, both for the one who executes it and for the one who accepts it. Yes, Nikolic was fit and that's how she began, with initiative and an offensive character against the Japanese. Koga held on and reversed a defensive situation into a devastating counter-attack on the ground that ended in ippon. In the final, the Japanese faced Mélanie Vieu. 

Quietly, as all eyes were focused on Koga, the Frenchwoman made her way through Costa's loss and defeated Israel's Tamar Malca in the semi-finals. Those who ruled out Vieu made a mistake because she had just won gold at the Mediterranean Games, that is, she was in a winning dynamic and that is the minimum required to face a Japanese athlete in any final. 

One thing was clear from the beginning, the eight gold medals that Japan bagged in Budapest a few days ago were the forefront of what could happen in Zagreb and Koga was the one in charge of opening the bidding. Koga took 32 seconds to complete a rolling shime-waza that was beautiful but left us hungry for more. Koga has been outstanding, in total control, far away from other contenders and she was only the first Japanese judoka in the run. 

Tugce Beder and Milica Nikolic inaugurated the distribution of bronze medals. On paper it looked like an unbalanced fight between the Turkish woman, number 102 in the world, and the Serbian multi-medallist. Beder burned the role of omens and won with authority, thanks to two providential waza-ari. 

The second bronze went to Martínez Abelenda who disposed of the Israeli Malca with a textbook ippon. With the silver from Tbilisi, the Spanish enjoyed another positive balance ahead of the World Championships in Tashkent.