Jessica Pereira gets closer to the top U52kg

With no surprise in the women's U52kg, the two favorites, the three-time Grand Prix Gold medalist, Distria Krasniqi (KOS), and the 2017 Pan-American Champion, Jessica Pereira (BRA), entered the final of the Grand Prix in Tunis. Much less active than Krasniqi, Pereira was penalized with a first shido half way to the end and again with a second one just before the last minute.

Giving the impression that Krasniqi was perfectly controlling the final, The kovoarian judoka was perhaps a little too confident and did not pay attention that the Brazilian had a very strong ko-soto-gari, which she applied twice, first for a waza-ari and second for a clear ippon.

The first bronze medal contest saw the winner of 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Slam and sister of Olympic Bronze Medallist Priscilla, Astride Gneto (FRA) facing the 19-year-old Kose Mai (JPN), who never participated in a World Judo Tour event before Tunis. As none of the athletes were able to score during regular time, they entered the golden score with only shido up on the scoreboard. After 2 minutes of extra-time, they had tow shido each and a simple mistake was about to determine the winner. The mistake was done by the French, who couldn't resist to the Japanese ne-waza skills and was immobilized for ippon. From now on, with this medal, Kose Mai will appear on the world results for the first time.

Irem Korkmaz (TUR) and Anja Stangar (SLO) were opposed in the second bronze medal contest. The danger came first from the Turkish side as Korkmaz followed a uchi-mata attempt with a semi-gaeshi but for no score, repeating the same technique a few seconds later again for the same result. After a long session on the floor, Stangar could finally catch her opponent with an immobilisation for ippon and win here second medal on a Grand Prix.