Teen Lkhagvatogoo Enkhriilen books records with gold U57kg

New Mongolian kid on the block Lkhagvatogoo Enkhriilen was a shock winner in Ulaanbaatar as she bested former Asian Championships winner Ishikawa Megumi (JPN) in the U57kg final. Lkhagvatogoo is the fourth youngest ever winner of an IJF Tour. Megumi Tsugane (JPN), Hifumi Abe (JPN) and Da Sol Park (KOR) were just a few days younger than the Mongolian starlet.

Lkhagvatogoo, 17, who finished fifth at the Cadet World Championships last year, was fighting in her fourth IJF senior event and showed incredible poise as she worked her way through the preliminaries and into the final against Ishikawa who defeated Olympic and world champion Matsumoto Kaori in Japan this year. Ishikawa applied a koshi-jime strangle and starlet Lkhagvatogoo resisted it as she defended all manner of attacks on the ground from the Japanese fighter. The Mongolian crowd jumped out of their seats when Lkhagvatogoo took the lead as she threw for waza-ari with a tai-otoshi and there was no way back for Ishikawa who produced a string of ne-waza attacks but to no avail.

In the first semi-final Rome European Open bronze medallist Kim Minju (KOR) was beaten by home judoka Lkhagvatogoo Enkhriilen (MGL) on shido penalties 2:1 while in the second semi-final ISHIKAWA rushed past Junior World Championships bronze medallist Andreja Leski (SLO) in the opening minute. The Japanese fighter showcased her highly-regarded ne-waza by freeing her legs from those of her opponent to trap the young Slovenian with a yoko-shiho-gatame for 20 seconds and ippon.

The first bronze medal was won by Leski who beat fellow young gun Man Dariwa (CHN) – who hails from inner Mongolia – with a driving ouchi-gari for ippon. Man, who was making her second appearance on the IJF World Judo Tour having debuted at this event in 2014, was thrown after 55 seconds for the maximum score as Slovenia look blessed with a whole new generation of budding judoka for Tokyo 2020. The second bronze medal was won by Kim - her first at the IJF Grand Prix level – as she edged out 19-year-old rookie Tseregbaatar Khulan (MGL) in golden score. After 36 seconds of added time, KIM prevailed as the Mongolan was penalised with a shido.

Young Khorloo Battamir was even the youngest on the podium today, with just 16 years in her passport, she took bronze U48kg.