Top four Japanese Hamada Shori wins gold in Zagreb

Hamada Shori won the gold at the Grand Prix in Zagreb, one of the five gold medal for Japan this weekend. France's Hawa Camara was the favourite of the competition in Zagreb, but her entry into the final was not guaranteed.

Camara, second in Tbilisi and third in Paris at the beginning of the season, she nevertheless had the advantage of the experience of IJF World Judo Tour events and without blinking, she qualified for the final against the specialist of uchi-mata, Japanese Hamada Shori.

But it was not with a uchi-mata that the final concluded. Only ten seconds were necessary for Hamada to win a second gold medal in a Grand Prix. She immediately forced Camara to kneel down, upturned her and applied an arm-bar for ippon.

The two top seeds in the final, Valeria Ferrari (ITA) and Yahima Ramirez (POR) were left to compete for bronze in the first of the two matches for a podium finish. The last minute of the match started with a first shido given to Ferrari. A last action from the Portuguese on the final gong was not counted and therefore it was time for golden score. After 24 seconds, Ramirez was penalised for stepping out of the competition area. One minute later, she finally produced her effort by overpassing the foot of Ferrari and throwing her for a waza-ari with a sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi.

The second bronze medal contest was 100% German, as Maike Ziech (GER) and Luise Malzahn (GER) faced off for the right to step onto the podium. After four minutes, the scoreboard was still to be breached, except for two shidos against Ziech. After 24 seconds Malzahn used her experience at the international level to counterattack her teammate for a waza-ari and one more Grand Prix medal.