Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh defeats Dilara Lokmanhekim in the final of Samsun

The temperature of the Yasar Dogu Sports Arena raised in the final of the Grand Prix of Samsun U48kg both athletes entered the competition area, the public warmly encouraging Dilara Lokmanhekim and chanting ’Turkiye, Turkiye’. But that was not enough to boost the 21 year old Turkish athlete who was quickly thrown two times, the first one with a sumi-gaeshi for waza-ari, followed a few seconds later by a massive ura-nage (counterattack) for a full ippon. With that new victory, Galbadrakh confirms that she will be among the favourites of the Olympic Games in Rio.

Defeated but still running for a medal, Menezes was opposed to Shira Rishony (ISR), silver medallist in Cuba last January, in the first bronze medal contest of the day. The first strong action was produced by Rishony with a drop seoi-nage, perfectly controlled by Menezes for no score. Then Menezes took a small advantage (one shido) as the Israeli was pushing her outside of the fighting area. The Olympic champion calmly controlled the end of the match to one more time step on an international podium.

The second bronze medal fight opposed, Kim Sol Mi (PRK) and Laetitia Payet (FRA), both athletes being respectively ranked 23 and 24 at the World Ranking List, which does not guarantee an Olympic qualification yet. After a few seconds, a first sasae attempt from Payet put Kim out of balance but the North Korean landed on her stomach for no score. Payet took the advantage as Kim was penalised with a shido for blocking her opponent, but it was then the turn of the French to be penalised. As the fight was running, Kim was again penalised two times, before Payet could apply her preferred overturn to immobilize Kim for ippon and to win her eighth Grand Prix medal.

Knowing that she is already sure to participate in the Games next summer, the current Olympic champion, and currently third in the world ranking, Sarah Menezes of Brazil, came to Samsun for reassurance and to garner a few more points to obtain a stronger position on the World Ranking List. But everything did not go the way she planned as she was surprisingly eliminated by the French fighter, Laetitia Payet, winner of the Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix last year, in the quarter final, who with that victory thought that she already made a big step forward to the gold today in Samsun. But Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh, winner of the last Paris Grand Slam, earlier this year, had a different opinion and blocked Payet at the gate of the final with a clear victory (waza-ari and yuko on beautiful and powerful counterattacks). In the final the Kazakh was opposed to Dilara Lokmanhekim, who made the Turkish crowd stand up for the first time of the day, when she defeated Shira Rishony (ISR) in the semi-final, by shido. With this place in the final, Lokmanhekim, already gains precious points to outstrip her teammate Ebru Sahin for a place in the Turkish Olympic team, as before the start of the competition, both athletes were respectively ranked 13 and 14.