Rika Takayama books biggest career title in Tyumen

In the final U78kg of the Grand Slam of Tyumen Takayama Rika of Japan defeated Klara Apotekar of Slovenia with a routine win to capture U78kg gold. Apotekar is Junior World Championships silver medallist and the younger sister of former world silver medallist Ana Velensek.

The Japanese youngster, this year’s Asian Championships silver medallist, held down her Slovenian opponent with a tate-shiho-gatame for 14 seconds and yuko score as Apotekar had enough about her to escape the hold. Takayama tried to return to the same position but then instead adjusted to a juji-gatame and Apotekar had to tap out.

The first bronze medal was claimed by former Baku Grand Slam bronze medallist Anastasiya Dmitrieva (RUS) who saw off Brigita Matic of Croatia on shidos. Dmitrieva, who narrowly failed to qualify for Rio 2016, took the bronze medal as she was penalised once in the scoreless contest while Matic was penalised twice with the latter coming for stepping out in the closing seconds. The second bronze medal contest featured Orenburg European Cup winner Aleksandra Babintceva (RUS) against little-known youngster Antonina Shmeleva (RUS). Babintceva, who shocked top seed Natalie Powell (GBR) in their opening contest with a juji-gatame for ippon, threw Shmeleva with a powerful harai-goshi for ippon.