Barbara Timo surprises with Grand Prix victory

The home crowd came to Zagreb for their heroes Barbara Matic and Dominik Druzeta, but in the end didn’t witness any Croatian medal. Matic was defeated before the final and so Barbara Timo of Brazil and French Fanny Estelle Posvite met to decide the destination of the gold medal, won by Timo.

Timo who won just one Grand Prix in her career in Tashkent in 2013, was clearly not the favourite. However she is in shape given her recent victory at the Universiade in a tough final, and she does have the experience in her five international years with medals in Abu Dhabi last year and a number of Panam Open medals. Still it was Posvite who was more expected to take the gold.

A first shido was given to both athletes after a few seconds as they were grabbing one another fingers. Even if the French seemed stronger, the initiative of the match was in the hands of the Brazilian, who actually scored the first waza-ari with a drop seoi-nage. Incapable of any acceleration, Posvite was under pressure and was penalised a second time for blocking her opponent. That is really the moment when doubt instils its poison, and Posvite being incapable of any rhythm change had to concede the victory to Barbara Timo who won the second gold medal for team Brazil in Zagreb.

The first bronze medal contest opposed Emilie Sook (DEN) and Michaela Polleres (AUT). Both competitors were penalised with a first shido as they entered the second minute of the match. Again Sook and Polleres received a shido one minute later, 2-2. As Emilie Sook stepped outside of the competition area, she was penalised a third time for hansoku-make and the victory went to Michaela Polleres.

The second bronze medal match saw Anna Bernholm (SWE) facing Barbara Matic (CRO), who had the whole public behind her. Every action of Matic was strongly supported by the crowd, which was close to exploding with joy twice as the young judoka was close to scoring. The first waza-ari came from the other side as Bernholm counterattacked the Croatian with a massive ura-nage. It was not the last desperate attacks of Matic which changed the result, and despite all the support, Matic lost while Bernholm could enjoy her fifth Grand Prix medal.