Chen-Ling Lien (TPE) is one of the most experienced athletes in the category. She knows every move, every situation, how to react perfectly and adapt herself to all types of opponent and styles of judo. She has very strong kumi-kata (gripping) too. I know from my experience as a coach that if one of my athletes, especially Timna NELSON LEVY, fights against her, it will be a very strong match, that needs to be approached from a motivational, technical and tactical point of view.
For me, Chen-Ling Lien is one of the candidates to be in the medal fights at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. It is never an easy fight, even if technically speaking she is not a huge thrower with a lot of techniques, but she is very strict and stable with her grip and she has very strong moves in ne-waza. Her sankaku is dangerous and has already caught Timna twice in the past. She’s one of the top athletes of the category, not young, but she knows how to use every percentage of her experience.
Timna NELSON-LEVY was also meeting strong athletes today and some of them she had never beaten before, so I think that the Tel Aviv victory is building some confidence and offers her extra motivation. Today she lost a match to Lien but I guess this is the best training for her before Tokyo 2020. For the last 3 years we can see her evolution. She is improving after every competition and she works hard. She started judo late, when she was 14 years old, so she knew that to arrive at this level she needed to work at not 100% but put 200% into each training opportunity and each competition. I believe now she's one of the best athletes at -57 kg and she has a staff behind her that believes a lot in her and in her judo.
TAMAOKI Momo (JPN) was the World Masters champion in 2018 and 2019. She’s not the number 1, maybe not even the number 2 in Japan, but we know her very well and when Japan decides to send someone to a competition, especially to grand slams and during Olympic qualification tournaments, it is because for sure they have the level to win gold.
It’s interesting to see that in the Masters and here also, when focusing on Japan, because of this global Covid situation, they can not train normally and they can not leave Japan and do training camps with other people. You can see that their level has dropped a little bit. You can see that many athletes don't have so many opportunities to go out of their countries either. In Japan they have a legacy of judo and so many training partners, but their judo has been impacted and also their preparation for the Tokyo Games. I feel that at Olympic Games we will have a lot of surprises.
The big surprise here for me is the Serbian Marica PERISIC. She is progressing a lot and she is an amazing athlete. She is lacking some experience, but already taking her steps into the category and in the future she will be a strong contender for medals.
Continuing to talk about Serbia, at -48 kg there are two great athletes. The youngster, Andrea STOJADINOV (SRB), I believe is already one of the best in this category. She is in the top 20 after only a few competitions in seniors. She had an important match against her opponent from the same team Milica NIKOLIC. It was not a beautiful match to see but we all know how it is when 2 people from the same country meet in competition. Having the same level, many times it finishes with one penalty and here was not an exception, but the morote-seoi-nage of Stojadinov is very strong and explosive, she really does it well, with good flexibility and power to do it. I think it is still open between them and believe Serbia will have to wait and see how it is going to go for the rest of the competitions, to finally decide who goes to the Olympic Games.
What I like the most is when you see someone like Tsunoda. She was one of the best at -52kg and she changed to -48kg and now she's really coming. She is not ranked, so the people who are expecting sometimes to get an easy match in the first or second rounds of the competition and then they get Tsunoda, as Shira RISHONY (ISR) did today. Tsunoda is not an explosive judoka, I can compare her to Lien at -57kg, but she knows exactly what she needs to do, at the right moment, with a very strong kumi-kata and she is so precise all the time. I think she doesn't make so many mistakes and she has this amazing transition from tachi-waza to ne-waza. That jugi-gatame is just amazing! From almost all situations she can get the arm and win by ippon with it. Also, I think she's sometimes at the limit to get penalised with false attacks with her tomoe-nage. Many times we can see that she does her technique only to go to kansetsu-waza. This is my point of view. I think she's doing it perfectly. She is a top level athlete so she may get a little bit of respect or advantage from that. I think with the old rules it is ok, but with new rules I think she is really at the limit. The referees should look sometimes a little bit closer, because a lot of her attacks are only to get the ne-waza transition and you see it immediately. For other athletes, you see mate and shido and for her if she starts to get that once or twice, she will improve it and things can be changed.
The Spanish judoka Laura MARTINEZ ABELENDA was, at the last competitions, not in her very best shape, maybe a question of motivation, but here I watched some of her matches and she's much better. Today she threw a lot and I know she is a hard worker, so again, Spain will have some trouble to choose who goes to the Olympics.
In -52kg PETROVIC of Serbia is also progressing a lot. It is great to see a country like Serbia improving and they are building a very nice women's team. You can not say that it will be easy if you fight against a Serbian judoka.
No surprise here, in the end, with the final between ABE Uta (JPN) and LKHAGVASUREN Sosorbaram (MGL), but I need to say that Abe had a hard first match against BISHRELT Khorloodoi (MGL), solving the problem with a 3 shido victory; what we are used to seeing from Abe and her big throws.
The Korean was an amazing competitor at -48kg but now in the -52kg category she showed today that she has the ability to be very strong at the Olympic Games. Korea has two athletes in that category who can go to the Games and I don’t know what their choice will be. JEONG had really good wins today and for her it’s a very important result, an amazing performance. At -57kg I didn’t see the final, but as I said before, the Japanese team always have the capacity to win, especially with ABE. For the bronze, of course, we are a little disappointed because Timna lost. Stoll from Germany was also very good today. Maybe NELSON LEVY should be there too, but I think that it’s good also when younger athletes win against more experienced competitors. It’s good for the motivation. 80 to 90% of the top athletes were here. It was very high level. The people who won will draw conclusions as well as the ones who lost. When you finish without the medal, it’s good training.
At -48kg it was a very good final by MUNKHBAT, with amazing technique. We like to see judo like that; the right attack at the right moment. For the bronze medal between Milica NIKOLIC (SRB) and Laura MARTINEZ ABELENDA (ESP), it was a very close fight, going from one side to the other. It’s very nice to see that at the end, the Serbian found the spirit to win. In the other bronze medal fight it was clear that Andrea STOJADINOV (SRB) was better. The best opponents in the final block won the medals. There was no discussion. I saw ABE today. I still believe she is not at her top level and that’s normal. In Tokyo we’ll see a different ABE, but the big champions also win when it’s not their best day. Winning a bronze, Fabienne KOCHER (SUI) is a good athlete and over the past months she won against a lot of judoka. She’s very strong, very agressive. I am happy for her medal.
Francesco Bruyere – Coach of the Italian delegation
In the -60 kg category NAGAYAMA Ryuju (JPN) and SMETOV Yeldos (Kazakhstan) were no surprise. Being number 1 seed and number 3 in Tashkent and former world champions and Masters champions, the result seemed logical. The Japanese fighter was throwing a lot today, always looking for ippon.
What I love to see in this category is that we see a lot of balanced matches, even with the younger generation when they have big names in front of them. We saw a lot of scores today. The high level is getting more and more competitive, with even the young athletes taking their places, for example, Sharafuddin LUTFILLAEV (UZB), losing against Artsiom KOLASAU (BLR). That win is not something that is not easy to do, knowing that the Uzbek athlete had the public support.
I think the rules are giving opportunities to everyone to show their judo and to have balanced judo fights and to score.
We saw big throws today, not so many matches being decided by shido, so that's a good thing. The Uzbek team is delivering very generous judo; they are always looking for body contact and big ippons. It is beautiful for the public, beautiful for all us judo fans.
At -66 kg AN Baul (KOR) is a very experienced judoka. He wins a lot of matches in the end because of this experience. He’s very tactical, very calm, he never panics and makes almost no mistakes. That makes him special. He has the capacity to stay focused until the last second. We could see, in the first and second rounds, he took waza-ari but that wasn't a problem for him.
Baskhuu YONDONPERENLEI (MGL) also has very good judo and doesn’t fear contact, body to body. We know the Mongolian judo. It is always spectacular and today Baskhuu is giving us this.
With our Italian team, we brought a young generation and they are surprising us in a positive way. We are already thinking of Paris 2024.
In the 60kg final there were no mistakes from NAGAYAMA. He managed to score very well and today he was definitely stronger than SMETOV. The contest for the bronze medal between Shahboz SAIDABUROROV (TJK) and Kemran NURILLAEV (UZB) was beautiful and spectacular. As I said before, the Uzbek showed open and generous judo in favour of the show and the fans who supported him.
The bronze medal won by Aram GRIGORYAN (RUS) was interesting in the -66kg group. He took advantage of the rules, performing sumi-otoshi with his elbow but keeping the grip on the sleeve, amazing. On the other side of the draw, we had a very clever Sardor NURILLAEV (UZB), who set a very good kumi-kata with the Korean, who could not find the solution with which to throw him.
An Baul has a lot of experience and he took the final home easily, in the same way as he led the whole competition. That's very good.