Gili Cohen needed a win and captured it in Ekaterinburg

Israelian judoka Gili Cohen won her second Grand Slam gold medal by defeating Marrakech Grand Prix silver medallist Ana Perez Box of Spain in the U52kg final. Former Baku Grand Slam winner and Tel Aviv Grand Prix silver medallist Cohen floored her Spanish opponent, who was appearing in a Grand Slam final for the first time, with a ko-uchi-gari which was one of the best ippons on day one.

In the first semi-final Olympic bronze medallist Natalia Kuziutina (RUS) was shocked by Perez Box by ippon. In the second semi-final London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Charline Van Snick (BEL) lost out to Cohen in golden score by a waza-ari score.

The first bronze medal was awarded to Van Snick who tapped out Cancun Grand Prix bronze medallist Joana Ramos (POR) with shime-waza. The second bronze medal was won by Kuziutina as world number 71 Daria Bobrikova (RUS) could not compete due to injury.

Gili Cohen: “It feels great, it was a long day with tough fights and I was happy to finish it with a good win and a gold medal. Ana Perez Box is a good opponent and I fought her before and I wanted to keep the momentum going. She started start strong but I kept cool and it worked out eventually so I am very happy.”

“My last Grand Slam title was in 2016 so a long time ago. So I hope to keep this momentum for the next competitions. So now I will go back to the mat for a training camp and then we will see how it will go at the Grand Prix in Tbilisi and from there we will see.”