Anka Pogacnik grabs first IJF World Tour gold in Antalya

Slovenian Anka Pogacnik took the gold at the Grand Prix in Antalya U70kg. Her opponent in the final was Elvismar Rodriguez. Coming from Venezuela, Elvismar Rodriguez is supported by the International Judo Federation and is currently training out of Hungary at the IJF Training Centre.

The first penalty was awarded to Elvismar Rodriguez for passivity and actually during the regular time that was the only element that appeared on the scoreboard. Thus both athletes entered the golden score and it did not take long for Pogacnik to launch a ko-soto-gari with an action-reaction to score a waza-ari and win her third gold medal on a Grand Prix.

The first bronze medal contest opposed Dilbar Umiraliyeva (KAZ) and the 2014 Junior World Champion, Barbara Matic (CRO). After one minute, the Croatian did not really pay attention and was close to being caught with an armlock from which she miraculously escaped. Umiraliyeva was penalised with a first shido when entering the second half of the bout. As both athletes were approaching the edge of the competition area, Matic initiated an chi-mata, but as Umiraliyeva immediately reacted and prepared her counterattack, Matic simply hooked her opponent’s inner leg to score ippon with a beautiful o-uchi-gari.

The second bronze medal contest saw Gemma Howell (GBR) and Szabina Gercsak (HUN) facing for a place on the podium. Gercsak was penalised the first for a false attack with a shido. Things started to be a little complicated for the Hungarian as she was penalised a second time and during a groundwork session, Howell could demonstrate all her skills to catch Gercsak with a shime-waza (choking technique) for ippon and her fifth medal at a Grand Prix.