Kayla Harrison unstoppable in Dusseldorf

Kayla Harrison (USA), was definitely the woman to beat today in Düsseldorf in the women’s u78kg weight category. Although Luise MALZAHN (GER) was the top seeded athlete, the former world and reigning Olympic champion, , didn't surprise with her victory, but the way she achieved it was impressive. The American entered the final after her victories against Laia TALARN (ESP), Guusje STEENHUIS (NED) and SATO Ruika (JPN). In the final she faced the second top seeded athlete, Anamari VELENSEK (SLO), who won the Paris Grand Slam in 2014.

After one minute in the final both athletes were penalized with a shido for passivity. The American took this opportunity to launch her first main attack scoring an opportunist ko-uchi-gari for yuko. HARRISON was then penalized for a wrong grip. A last action from HARRISON, which started before the final gong, but ended after for no score didn’t change the final score and the American added one more line to her impressive prize list.

In the first bronze medal fight, Guusje STEENHUIS (NED) and 2013 Moscow Grand Slam winner, JOO Abigel (HUN) met for a place on the podium. The Hungarian bided her time until the second half of the fight to score a o-soto-gari for waza-ari but it was changed to a yuko. 

The second bronze medal fight saw tho non-seeded athletes having the chance to step on the podium: Daria POGORZELEC (POL), who only won a bronze medal on the occasion of a World Judo Tour event and SATO Ruika (JPN), already winner of two Grand Slam titles in her career. The experience of the Japanese was clearly enough to give her the chance to reach the podium as she scored a o-uchi-gari for yuko, which she saved until the final gong.