Rafaela Silva back to World level challenger

Brazil’s first female world judo champion Rafaela Silva is back to her best after pitching a 100% record at the Tbilisi Grand Prix. The 23-year-old Silva won all four of her contests by ippon and saved her best score for the final as she caught Havana Grand Prix bronze medallist Nora Gjakova of Kosovo by surprise with a flying juji-gatame with 90 seconds left for gold. Brazil’s Rio 2016 hope, beat Olympic and world champion Matsumoto Kaori (JPN) with the same technique at the Tokyo Grand Slam in December.

In the first semi-final former Qingdao Grand Prix bronze medallist Jovana Rogic of Serbia fell to 2013 world champion Rafaela Silva in osaekomi for 20 seconds while in the second semi-final Olympic bronze medallist Automne Pavia was undone by Nora Gjakova who scored a yuko with one second left to seal a place in the final.

The first bronze medal was won by German former world bronze medallist Miryam Roper against familiar foe Pavia who had three shidos to her name after just two minutes. The French fighter was forced to go on the attack to avoid conceding a fourth penalty and missed with an uchi-mata as Roper countered for the maximum score with 55 seconds left. The second bronze medal was won by Havana Grand Prix silver medallist Hedvig Karakas of Hungary who had to grind out a win in added time against Rogic. The scoreless contest was even after four minutes with a shido apiece but Karakas had plenty in reserve and ended the contest with a seoi-otoshi earning ippon after 21 seconds of extra time.