More joy for Japan as Rinoko Wada wins in the Bahamas

Japanese Wada Rinoko defeated Junior European championships bronze medallist Karla Prodan (CRO) in the U78kg final to set Japan off for a treble on day four. Croatia’s 2015 Cadet World Championships winner was thrown with an o-soto-gari on two occasions as Rome European Open gold medallist Wada sealed gold with 25 seconds left on the clock.

In the first semi-final Wada defeated Junior Pan American Championships winner Camila Ponce (BRA) with osaekomi-waza as the Brazilian was unable to escape a yoko-shiho-gatame hold. In the second semi-final 2017 Junior World Championships silver medallist Teresa Zenker (GER) lost out to Prodan in golden score by ippon from a o-uchi-gari.

The first bronze medal was won by Junior European Championships winner Patricia Sampaio (POR) who beat Zenker with 17 seconds left on the clock. Sampaio broke the deadlock with a waza-ari score and added a second with a seoi-nage to match her result from 2017.    

The second bronze medal was claimed by Glasgow European Open silver medallist Shelley Ludford (GBR) after Ponce was disqualified for a waki-gatame. Ludford made sure that the British team medalled in the Bahamas on the last day of the individual competition.