Anna Borowska breaks through her barriers with gold in Tashkent

Polish Anna Borowska celebrated the biggest win of her career at the expense of former Timna Nelson Levy of Israel in the U57kg final of the Grand Prix in Tashkent. Former Junior European Championships winner Borowska threw the Israeli with an o-goshi to level up their head-to-head series at 1-1 during a positive start for Poland.

Borowska who was European Open bronze medallist in Minsk won a number of European medals but captured two European senior medals so far, a little behind the expectations after her European Junior title in 2014.

Nonetheless she had her value for the Polish team when they won the European team title last year in Warsaw, but not it was time for a breakthrough. The Grand Prix in Tashkent with 14 varying participants was the right circumstance for Borowska who surprised with devastating throws.

In the semi-final Borowska threw 21-year-old Minsk European Open silver medallist Giulia Caggiano (ITA) for the maximum score after three minutes of golden score. The Polish judoka sent the Italian youngster flat onto her back with force from a osoto-gari which was one of the ippons of the day.

In the other semi-final Nelson Levy beat veteran Sabrina Filzmoser (AUT) by two waza-ari scores to advance to the final. The Israeli was in the ascendancy from the start and took the contest to the Austrian which is an achievement in itself. Nelson Levy scored twice and Filzmoser could not impose herself as she moved down into the bronze medal equation. Timna Levy who had already won European senior medals over the last two years, couldn’t defeat Borowska who was loose today.

The first bronze medal was won by 17-year-old European Youth Olympic Festival winner Kaja Kajzer (SLO) after a spirited contest against Caggiano. Kajzer will compete in the Junior World Championships later this month in Zagreb, Croatia, with a Grand Prix medal already on her resume after seeing off the young Italian after 6 minutes and 34 seconds of golden score. Caggiano was penalised for going out of the area to finish in fifth-place to bring an end to a contest which saw both judoka go toe-to-toe for over 10 minutes. Kajzer was the fourth youngest medallist at any Grand Prix this year. With her 17 years a huge difference with 37 year old Filzmoser.

The second bronze medal was won by Sevara Nishanbayeva (KAZ) who won Tashkent Grand Prix bronze for the second year in a row at the expense of Filzmoser. Kazakh judoka Nishanbayeva scored a waza-ari with an osoto-makikomi and trapped the Austrian in a kuzure-kesa-gatame but Filzmoser escaped after 19 seconds. Nishanbayeva made sure with three seconds left with a ouchi-gari for ippon. Nishanbayeva escaped from superb groundwork by the Austrian, but came back strongly and took the bronze.

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