Japanese Erina Ike takes gold at Grand Prix Mongolia

Japanese youngster Ike Erina surprisingly defeated one of Mongolia’s strongest medal hopes for Rio 2016 in the U70kg final as Almaty Grand Prix silver medallist Tsend-Ayush Naranjargal of Mongolia succumb to Asian opposition. Ike, 20, received a shido for passivity before scoring a yuko from a tani-otoshi.

Ike added a waza-ari as Tsend-Ayush was off form and failed with a last-gasp shime-waza attempt.

In the first semi-final Tsend-Ayush bested 19-year-old former Cadet Asian Open winner Munkhbat Davaasuren (MGL) by trapping her opponent in osaekomi for 20 seconds after using a turnover which is known in some circles as the ‘Pinewood roll’.  In the second semi-final former European bronze medallist Barbara Matic lost out Ike as she could not escape a kami-shiho-gatame before the count reached 20 seconds.

The first bronze medal was claimed by Qingdao Grand Prix winner Matic against 18-year-old Cadet Asian Championships bronze medallist Amarsaikhan Oyungerel (MGL). Matic showed her quality and still untapped talents at the world level by opening the scoring with a waza-ari and ending the scoring with ippon to advance to the final. The second bronze medal contest was won by Munkhbat who beat 20-year-old IJF World Judo Tour rookie Bai Yutong (CHN). Bai, who hails from Inner Mongolia, was penalised twice as the referee only had to reprimand the Chinese judoka with no score registered and no indiscretions from the home fighter.