Iryna Kindzerska hits the golden jackpot in Tashkent

With 10 medals on the World Judo Tour, Carolin Weiss (GER) was again present in the final block of a major IJF event. She was opposed to the 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Slam bronze medallist, Iryna Kindzerska (AZE). Despite the difference in weight, the first half of the match seemed to be fairly balanced and as the two competitors entered the last minute, only shido had been distributed, two to Weiss, one to Kindzerska.

But Weiss started to suffer and was penalized for the third time, Kindzerska wining the third gold medal for team Azerbaijan here in Tashkent.

For the first bronze medal match, the 2017 The Hague Grand Prix bronze medallist, Sarah Adlington (GBR), faced the winner of the 2018 Agadir Grand Prix Yelyzaveta Kalanina (UKR). The first Waza-ari came from the tall Kalanina with a o-uchi-gari. Exactly half way to the end, both competitors were penalized for passivity, but it took fifteen more seconds for the Ukrainian to combine a uchi-mata and a o-uchi-gari to score a second Waza-ari to win her fourth Grand Prix medal.

Kseniia Chibisova (RUS), bronze medallist in Cancun a few weeks ago, and the winner in Abu Dhabi, two weeks ago, Maryna Slutskaya (BLR), qualified for the second bronze medal contest of the category. After only seventeenth seconds Slutskaya was penalized for gripping on the same side of the judogi without attacking. A little later, it was Chibisova's turn to be penalized for passivity and as the end of the match approached, she received a second shido. In the golden score, the Belarus was pushing to make the Russian penalized a third time, but it is on the floor, that Slutskaya finally found an opportunity to apply an arm-lock for ippon and her eighth medal in a Grand Prix.