Each year at least one big victory for Monica Ungureanu

Romanian judoka Monica Ungureanu was a convincing winner in the U48kg final at the Grand Prix in Tbilisi. The Baku Grand Slam winner scored on four occasions to defeat three-time African champion Taciana Lima-Balde (GBS). World number 11 Lima-Balde and world number 13 Ungureanu looked well-matched heading into the contest but it was the Romanian who controlled the one-sided contest.

Ungureanu led from a left-sided uchi-mata on the edge of the area and was aware of the significant ashi-waza threat posed by her opponent. The Romanian added a second yuko and then a third from holding down a struggling Lima-Balde for 14 seconds before ending the contest by throwing her opponent with a big hip technique for the maximum score.

In the first semi-final Abu Dhabi Grand Slam winner Irina Dolgova (RUS) suffered a shoulder half way through her contest against Ungureanu and had to concede the contest. In the second semi-final Qingdao Grand Prix bronze medallist Ebru Sahin (TUR) was beaten by three-time African champion Taciana Lima-Balde (GBS) who utilised her favoured ouchi-gari – as one of the tallest judoka in the category – before adding a second waza-ari to win by by waza-ari-awasette-ippon.

The first bronze medal contest was won by Paris Grand Slam winner Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh (KAZ) who denied Sahin in golden score. Galbadrakh has been in sensational form in 2016 and won her third IJF World Judo Tour medal in a row by throwing her Turkish opponent with a gigantic ura-nage for ippon after 42 seconds of added time. The second bronze medal was won by defending Tbilisi Grand Prix gold medallist Maryna Cherniak (UKR) as world number four Dolgova could not compete due to injury.