Golden trio lifts Polish judo to Olympic potential

Polish judo is booming. In the Olympic year 2016 the success doesn’t stop. Where the team events set the tone, the individual medals were confirmed at European and World Championships, now the own Polish Open tournament has three Polish women with a gold medal. For the first time 1997 Polish women dominate Warsaw with three titles.

On Sunday it was Katarzyna Klys, the frontrunner of female Polish judo who claimed her gold medal with a superb and quickly executed o-soto-gari in the final. In the previous edition in 2014 Klys won bronze, now followed by gold and 100 qualification points. Not just Klys, but also Beata Pacut took the victory in the final U78kg. The youngster defeated Dutch Karen Stevenson in the final. Pacut had severe competition with Lkhamdegd Purevjargal (WRL-36) in her first match. Spanish Laia Talarn (WRL-25) followed with a penalty difference and in the semi final experienced Portuguese (WRL-26) was also beaten by penalties.

Klys also won four matches, although her title was more expected. The number 14 of the World Ranking was the highest seed U70kg and didn’t have too much trouble with her opponents from Venezuela, Slovenia and Mongolia. Belgian Lola Mansour was a tough nut in the semi final, won by penalties. Klys secured her ticket for Rio with 100 fresh points. In April Klys will turn 30, but age doesn’t stop her and certainly not in this category with Emane, Alvear and Niang all in the thirty and ranked in the world ranking top 20.

Klys: "This is my first gold medal in Warsaw, that makes me really happy. I felt a little bit of pressure on my shoulders because I was number one seed. After the first fight I felt relaxed and I think I showed a reasonably good performance today. Maybe these 100 points will give me a better seeding position in Rio."

The gold in the heavyweight category was for Mexican Vanessa Zambotti (WRL-18). Zambotti had to win her three bouts against Ukrainian talent Kalanina, Belarus Euro Open winner 2013 Minsk Slutskaya and in the final Russian Ksenia Chibisova was defeated by ippon. In a limited field of 14 women the highest seeded judoka won her 8^th World Cup in her career.

In the medal table Poland is proud of three gold medals for Klys, Pacut and Podolak, Mongolia won two gold medals.