Ana Velensek captures another gold in Zagreb Grand Prix

Dusseldorf Grand Prix silver medallist Anamari VELENSEK (SLO) doubled her country’s gold medal haul in Zagreb with victory against Samsun Grand Prix bronze medallist Victoriia TURKS (UKR) in the -78kg final. With 75 seconds gone, TURKS was on the ground but left her arm exposed in the air and the standing VELENSEK – who lived up to her top seed status - caught it and sat back onto the tatami to lock on the juji-gatame and the Ukrainian immediately submitted.

In the first semi-final VELENSEK defeated Tashkent Grand Prix winner Daria POGORZELEC (POL). The Slovenian fighter needed golden score to break the deadlock against Pole POGORZELEC after a four minute stalemate in regular time. Two further minutes were required to produce the first and match-winning score as VELENSEK took full advantage of a weak uchi-mata effort by blocking the attack and dragging her opponent down onto her side for the score. In the second semi-final TURKS was too strong for Dusseldorf Grand Prix bronze medallist JOO Abigel (HUN) who finished second in Zagreb in 2014. The -78kg rivals traded waza-ari scores before TURKS produced a second which settled the contest and sent JOO into the bronze medal contest.

The first bronze medal was won by JOO as Hungary were prominent once again in the final block. The 24-year-old defeated Junior World Championships bronze medallist Ana Laura PORTUONDO ISASI (CAN) in just 53 seconds as she surged into action from the outset. PORTUONDO ISASI, 19, who defeated Youth Olympic champion Brigita MATIC (CRO) and world number nine Madeleine MALONGA (FRA) in the preliminaries, was countered for an ouchi-gari and JOO added a second waza-ari by holding her opponent down with a kesa-gatame for 15 seconds. The second bronze medal contest was won by beaten semi-finalist POGORZELEC against Qingdao Grand Prix silver medallist Guusje STEENHUIS (NED). POGORZELEC, who finished in fifth-place at the Dusseldorf Grand Prix, produced the biggest smile of the weekend after she was awarded the contest having scored a waza-ari from an ippon seoi-nage with 30 seconds remaining.