Michaela Polleres completes Austrian double on day two

Michaela Polleres defeated Warsaw European Open bronze medallist Gabriella Willems (BEL) to win her first IJF World Judo Tour title in Mexico. Austria won U63kg and U70kg gold as both of the women’s weight categories contested on the second day belonged to the in-form European nation.

European Championships bronze medallist Polleres won the battle of the two Junior World Championships U70kg bronze medallists by ippon with an uchi-mata only 58 seconds into the final.

In the first semi-final Minsk European Open bronze medallist Alessandra Prosdocimo (ITA) submitted Polleres after 44 seconds of golden score to the verbal delight of Austrian coach Marko Spitka who screamed with pleasure.

In the second semi-final Willems defeated former world number one Kelita Zupancic (CAN) by a waza-ari score in the scalp of her career to guarantee her first IJF World Judo Tour medal.

The first bronze medal was awarded to Zupancic who held down Olympic bronze medallist Laura Vargas Koch (GER) with a sankaku-gatame for 20 seconds and ippon. Vargas Koch was powerless to resist her Canadian opponent on the ground as Zupancic won her 10th Grand Prix medal while her German opponent still has time to capture her first IJF medal of 2018 with a busy schedule ahead to conclude the year.                                                      

The second bronze medal was won by former Tashkent Grand Prix winner Daria Pogorzelec (POL) who threw Prosdocimo with an o-soto-makikomi for ippon after two minutes of added time. Pogorzelec won her fourth Grand Prix medal and denied her Italian rival a first on the IJF World Judo Tour in a closely fought contest.