Andreja Leski takes doubles the joy for Slovenia

Andreja Leski (SLO) and Katharina Haecker (AUS) were going head2head in the first final of the second day of the Agadir Grand Prix. The 21 year-old Slovenia winner of the last Düsseldorf Grand Slam again won the gold.

This final was not really a surprise though, as both athletes were the top seed competitors of the category. After one minute and twenty seconds of observation, Leski was penalised a first time for passivity. But after a confused action that required a video review, a waza-ari with a ko-uchi-gari was logically awarded to the Slovenian to take the lead of the final. As the Australian was taking risks, she exposed herself to counterattacks. Waiting the perfect moment, Andreja Leski finally executed an o-goshi technique for a second waza-ari giving her her first gold medal in a Grand Prix, after her gold medal in a Grand Slam a couple of weeks ago.

The first bronze medal contest opposed Yasmine Horlaville (FRA), who so far has not record on the international scene and the bronze medallist of the 2014 Junior World Championships, Vivian Herrmann (GER). After a few second, Herrmann launched a first uchi-mata for no score, which didn't really put the French in danger and not athletes kept observing one another trying to find a solution to throw. But with one minute left on the scoreboard, Horlaville and Herrmann were only penalised with one shido and that was still the situation at the end of the regular time. After fifteen seconds in golden score, Horlaville was very close to score but the German escaped at the very last moment. Then the German was penalised again getting close to a third penalty which would give the victory to Horlaville and this happened a few seconds later, offering the spot on the podium to the young Yasmine Horlaville.

In the second bronze medal contest, Morocco had one chance to add one more medal as Sofia Belattar (MAR) was opposed to Inbal Shemesh (ISR), who won the Warsaw European Open earlier this year. As both competitors entered the filed of play, the noise level raised in the arena. The Moroccan was the first to score a waza-ari but this advantage was cancelled by the video refereeing. The least that can be said is that the rhythm of the contest was very high, Belattar trying everything to throw Shemesh as the Israeli was waiting for the counterattack, which she perfectly executed scoring a waza-ari that she immediately followed on the floor with an immobilisation for ippon. At the end of the match, Shemesh helped Belattar to stand up in a very fairplay manner.