Yarden Gerbi getting in shape with first gold since 2014

Israel showed its best judo so far with Friday’s silver of Shira Rishony and Saturday two gold medals for Yarden Gerbi and Linda Bolder at the Grand Prix of Havana. The first final of the second day opposed Yarden Gerbi, the 2013 World Champion, who once again showed her explosiveness to overcome all of her opponents during the preliminary rounds and Maricet Espinosa (CUB), bronze medallist at the Qingdao Grand Prix 2015.

If Gerbi was not able to every time score ippon, she was never really in danger and successively defeated Isabel Puche (ESP), Maylin Del Toro Carvajal (CUB) and Ekaterina Valkova (RUS). The story was not that successful for the other favourites of the competition who were all eliminated earlier during the competition. Some of them succeeded to enter the final block though in order to fight for at least a bronze medal.

The temperature of the stadium significantly increased as the two athletes entered the arena. In front of her public, Espinosa had the possibility to keep one gold medal on Cuban soil. The first attack came from Gerbi, but it was perfectly blocked by the Cuban. A few seconds later, the public exploded with big hurrahs as Espinosa launched a powerful attack but for no score. Perfectly controlling the fight, Gerbi finally placed one of her preferred technique to score a waza-ari. World champion three years ago, Yarden Gerbi remains one of the favourites for the Olympic title next summer in Rio de Janeiro.

Yarden Gerbi said: “I have been waiting for this feeling of winning gold since 2014 and this is too long for me. It feels great. I’m not at my best right now, but it’s important to win even when you are not at your best. Every time I think of the Olympics, I have the butterflies and this is my dream.“

The first bronze medal contest of the day opposed Swedish Mia Hermansson and Ecuador judoka Estefania Garcia, the silver medalist of the 2014 Pan-American Championship. After the four minutes of regular time, both athletes were penalised with two shidos. It was time for the golden score, which was clearly won by Mia Hermansson with a superb uchi-mata for ippon.

In the second bronze medal fight, Pari Surakatova of Russia, silver medallist in Budapest last year, faced her teammate, Ekaterina Valkova , who concluded her season last year with a beautiful bronze medal in Tokyo. Half way to the end, both athletes were penalised with a shido for false attack. At the beginning of the last minute, Surakatova was penalised a second time giving a small advantage to her opponent, Valkova, which she kept until the final gong for a place on the podium.