Karolina Pienkowska grabs third Polish Grand Prix victory this year

Polish judoka Karolina Pienkowska won her first IJF title at the Grand Prix in Zagreb with an efficient performance which culminated with a win against Junior world champion Distria Krasniqi of Kosova.

Pienkowska, who had only graced an IJF medal podium once before at the aforementioned event, was the surprise winner as she countered a ouchi-gari attempt from Krasniqi who failed to commit to the attack and was caught with ashi-waza for a yuko score. The 20-year-old from Kosovo, the long-time understudy to Olympic and double world champion Majlinda Kelmendi, lost out as the tactically astute Polish judoka flirted with danger as she was passive and unwilling to attack but the clock ran out on the former who ended with silver and her country’s second medal on day one.

In the first semi-final Krasniqi rushed past Budapest Grand Prix bronze medallist Larisa Florian (ROU) in just 14 seconds as she submitted the Romanian with shime-waza to advance to the gold medal contest. In the second semi-final Rio 2016 Olympian Angelica Delgado (USA) fell to Pienkowska (POL) by ippon from a tomoe-nage.

The first bronze medal was clinched by Pan American Championships bronze medallist Delgado in a thoroughly entertaining contest against Tyumen Grand Slam bronze medallist Tena Sikic (CRO) which went down to the final second. Delgado started a new quest for the Olympics by winning her first IJF medal as she scored a waza-ari from a sensational sasae-tsurikomi-ashi and followed through into osaekomi for a yuko but home judoka SIKIC showed her spirit as she crucially escaped after 14 seconds when one second later would have given the American victory. Miami’s Delgado went back to her previous technique but this time it was well scouted by Sikic who countered for a waza-ari of her own and piled on the pressure in the closing seconds but time ran out on her bid for a home medal. The second bronze medal was won by London 2012 Olympian Kelly Edwards (GBR) who floored FLORIAN with a must-see drop seoi-nage which sent the Romanian hurtling through the air and flat onto her back for the maximum score. Edwards missed out on qualification for Rio 2016 after an injury-ravaged qualification campaign but has now won IJF silverware for the first time in her career at her first attempt in this cycle and will hope to for more of the same as she targets Tokyo 2020 and major honours.