Yoko Ono converts bronze into gold at Euro Open in Oberwart

Again, the Japanese women had the upperhand in the medal count at the European Open for women in Oberwart. Two Japanese women secured the gold and Korea won the last remaining category. Kelita Zupancic was the lone, non-Asian finalist, but had to settle for silver.

In the U70kg category it was Yoko Ono who took the gold medal. In 2013, Ono earned bronze in Austria, but this time she won all four of her contests. Jenny Werner, Lola Mansour, Alice Bellandi, and in the final, Canadian Kelita Zupancic, were all victims of Ono’s solid performance. For a long time the match was even, but Yoko Ono proceeded with some fine groundwork and rolled Zupancic into osaekomi and progressed to the gold. Bronze went to British Gemma Howell, also with a nice piece of creative groundwork, which will be a tremendous motivation for her comeback. Howell lost in the semi final to Zupancic in the golden score due to a third penalty, but her judo was good. Japanese Naeko Maeda defeated Sara Rodriguez in the golden score.

The final matches for U78kg medals occurred quickly: an ippon victory after just a minute for Abigél Joó (HUN) giving her bronze and Akari Ogata (JPN), who grabbed bronze against Valeria Ferrari after three penalties. Shori Hamada gave Yujin Park no chance on the ground and got Park in an osaekomi in under 35 seconds.

Japan didn’t win all the medal matches as in the +78kg final, Kim Min-Jeong held off a smaller Nami Inamori. She opened her final match with a wazari 90 seconds into the contest. Kim kept up the attacks and didn’t give Inamori a chance to come back, preventing a clean sweep for Japan. Lee Eun-Ju of Korea finished Sara Yamamoto for the first heavyweight bronze in the golden score. Croatia’s Ivana Maranic won bronze over Kristin Buessow after her third penalty.

Japan won the medal table with four of the seven available golds. They were followed by Korea, with two victories, and a single gold medal for host Austria.