Galbadrakh Otgontsetseg celebrates career best in Paris

Galbadrakh Otgontsetseg of Kazachstan seemed to have made the right choice to switch from Mongolia last year. Today at the Judo Grand Slam Paris she was able to meet with her nemesis and former teammate Munkhbat Urantsetseg of Mongolia, in the final U48kg.

In the first final of the day Galbadrakh produced her performance of her career as she defeated former world champion Munkhbat. Galbadrakh, 24, started representing Kazakhstan in August 2015 instead of her native Mongolia which meant that the talented fighter’s world ranking points were reset and she started from zero. World number one Munkhbat Urantsetseg renewed her acquaintances with her ex-colleague as the pocked-sized world number 23, Galbadrakh, who made the stronger start as she took the lead with a yuko from a well-executed yoko-tomoe-nage. That score proved to be enough as Galbadrakh earned a superb first Grand Slam gold medal.  

The first semi-final saw double world champion Asami Haruna of Japan lose out to fellow former world champion Munkhbat. Asami was penalised with a shido in the opening minute and Munkhbat was the stronger Asian judoka as she outfought her opponent for all four minutes and won by a waza-ari which was the only score of their contest. In the second semi-final Jeju Grand Prix winner Galbadrakh squeezed past Olympic bronze medallist Charline Van Snick of Belgium with a tenacious display. Both judoka were level on the scoreboard with a yuko a piece after four minutes but the Belgian had been penalised twice while the former registered an unblemished record to secure a place in the final.

The first bronze medal fight pitted both -48kg London 2012 Olympic bronze medallists against each other as Van Snick squared off against Hungarian Csernoviczki Eva. It was Csernoviczki who boosted her Rio 2016 bid by coming from behind as Van Snick had led with a yuko from a tomoe-nage before being penalised with a shido for a false attack one minute into the contest. Csernoviczki took the lead for the first time with a waza-ari from a sode-tsurikomi-goshi with 41 seconds remaining and comfortably held on for bronze, a huge disappointment for the Belgian who lost for the sixth times to her nemesis from Hungary.

The second bronze medal fight opposed the 2012 Olympic Champion Sarah Menezes (BRA) and Asami. Both judoka were penalised with a shido for passivity just before Menezes scored a first yuko to take a significant advantage. Just after the halfway point of the fight, Asami was penalised again for avoiding the Brazilian’s grip, but Menezes also received a shido for blocking her opponent. Putting a lot of pressure on Menezes, Asami was able to catch her on the floor with a strong strangulation, from which the Olympic champion miraculously escaped. It took her a few seconds to recover though and she finally could control the rest of the fight for a beautiful bronze medal, which confirms that she is on her way back to her best level, which offered her the Olympic title four years ago.

 Former world champion Kondo Ami (JPN) went out to eventual winner Galbadrakh Otgontsetseg (KAZ) in her opening contest as she submitted to a koshi-jime.