World Tour gold for Giovanna Scoccimarro feels good

Former Junior World Champion Giovanna Scoccimarro captured her first IJF World Tour gold at the Grand Prix in Montreal. The tall German defeated home favourite Kelita Zupancic in the final for women U70kg.

At the beginning of the day, Maria Perez (PUR) and Assmaa Niang (MAR) were the most likely athletes to be seen in the final, but none of the favorites could make it to the last match of the category. Roxane Taeymans (BEL) eliminated Perez, while the Moroccan Niang was defeated during her first bout by Kim Seongyeon (KOR). The final opposed the 2017 Junior World Champion, Giovanna Scoccimarro (GER) and Kelita Zupancic (CAN), which definitely made the public very happy. World Master silver medallist back in 2013, Zupancic had an irregular season so far, winning a bronze medal in Hohhot a few weeks ago and a bronze medal at the Pan-American Championships. But in front of her public, Zupancic found the energy to push to the final.

For three minutes and a half, the match seemed fairly balanced, with none of the athletes able to really endanger the opponent. As the end of the bout approached, Zupancic launched a counterattack that was clearly out of control. She was quickly on the ground, on her back, Scoccimarro above her in immobilization position. Ippon! The gold medal hopes for Canada's Zupancic were over, while Scoccimarro was celebrating her first success at the senior level.

The first bronze medal match opposed the silver medallist of the Marrakech Grand Prix this season, Megan Fletcher (IRL) and Gabriella Willems (BEL), bronze medallist of the 2018 The Hague Grand Prix. After 2 minutes en 10 seconds without any score and after a long sequence on the floor, Willems thought that she had won by Ippon, when Fletcher tapped on an armlock. But after reviewing the video, the ippon was cancelled and the Belgian disqualified as she was not applying the lock on the elbow but on the wrist, which is forbidden.

In the second bronze medal contest Kim Seong-Yeon (KOR), second of the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta 2018, was opposed to Roxane Taeymans (BEL), second at the Tunis Grand Prix 2018. It is only in the last seconds of regular time that a first shido was given to Taeymans, followed by a second one a few seconds into Golden Score. After 2 minutes and 44 seconds of extra time KIM finally scored a delivering waza-ari with a drop-seoi-nage.