Japanese youngster Nabekura beats Olympic champion in Zagreb

The second day of the Zagreb Grand Prix produced winners from Kosovo, Germany, France and Japan as the diversity of elite level judo was on display in Croatia. Japan won their third title in Zagreb to tighten their grip of the medal table as Nabekura Nami ousted Olympic champion Tina Trstenjak of Slovenia in the U63kg final.

Nabekura Nami successfully defended her Zagreb Grand Prix crown by defeating Olympic champion Tina Trstenjak to win her fourth Grand Prix title. Nabekura, 21, extended her head-to-head series lead over Slovenia’s former world champion to 3-1 by throwing her renowned opponent with a spinning uchi-mata for ippon. Trstenjak was denied a seventh Grand Prix title which will be exactly the motivation she needs to fine tune some areas before launching her world title bid in Baku this September.

In the first semi-final Trstenjak narrowly defeated European Games winner Martyna Trajdos (GER) by a single waza-ari score. In the second semi-final Nabekura defeated Düsseldorf Grand Slam winner Andreja Leski (SLO) at the halfway point by ippon.

The first bronze medal contest was won by Antalya Grand Prix bronze medallist Alexia Castilhos (BRA) who impressively defeated Leski. Castilhos won her second IJF medal by throwing her Slovenian rival for a waza-ari with an uchi-mata and followed up with a kesa-gatame hold for a second and match-winning waza-ari                                                     

The second bronze medal was won by Hohhot Grand Prix bronze medallist Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (CAN) who bested world number seven Trajdos. It was the world number 18 from Canada who upset her German opponent by countering with a ura-nage for ippon.