Assunta Galeone stars for impressive Italians

Sofia European Open winner Assunta Galeone (ITA) won -78kg gold by defeating Jeju Grand Prix runner-up Victoriia Turks (UKR) in Tbilisi. Galeone, 28, took her career to new heights in Georgia by ippon from a osoto-gari to follow the success of her teammate Edwige Gwend (ITA) who won -63kg gold on Saturday.

In the first semi-final Galeone defeated Abu Dhabi Grand Prix bronze medallist Anastasiya Dmitrieva from Russia. The Italian edged ahead with a yuko and followed up with osaekomi-waza to book a place in the final. In the second semi-final TURKS defeated European u23 Championships bronze medallist Croatian Ivana Maranic by osaekomi after throwing her for a yuko to open the scoring.

The first bronze medal was won by Maranic who triumphed against Abu Dhabi Grand Prix bronze medallist Alena KACHOROVSKAYA (RUS) as she countered an o-goshi attempt with a tani-otoshi for a yuko which was the only score of their contest. The second bronze medal contest was won by Junior World Championships bronze medallist Brigita MATIC (CRO) who saw her older sister Barbara win -70kg gold on Saturday. The Croatian was tied three shido penalties apeiece against DMITRIEVA with 10 seconds left but found an extra gear when it mattered the most to throw her opponent for a waza-ari and hold her down with kesa-gatame for wazari-awasette-ippon.