Italian family medal for Veronica Toniolo in Almaty

The perfect family story unveiled in Almaty at the Cadet World Championships. At day two Veronica Toniolo showed she is the number one of the world. The Italian talents is trained by her father Raffaele, since the age of two years. Both went to Almaty with clear ideas, win and respect judo values. This is what Raffaele teaches, much more than any technique on tatami. For Toniolo, the main thing is to respect the opponent, the referees, oneself.

It is those values that forge the champions of tomorrow and, for Veronica's father, this is non-negotiable. Toniolo coaches his daughter but has a wealth of experience with senior and junior athletes for years on behalf of the Italian Judo Federation. He loves statistics, patrons, studies videos and schedules immediately after each draw and obviously knows to push the right buttons at the right time.

Toniolo faced the Russian Liliia Nugaeva, a young but old acquaintance of the cadet circuit. Before the fight the daughter received the last advice from the father. “Nugaeva is left-handed and doesn't like to fight right-handed people. You have to move because you are physically stronger and try to execute a tai-otoshi because it will be your best weapon today”.

But Nugaeva was ready. It was a physical contest, as always in the category of cadets, but also tactical. They know each other well. So good that they reached the golden score, the Russian with two shidos and one to the Italian.

What nobody had expected was to witness such a long contest. The error occurred after ten minutes and forty-six seconds of golden score. Almost fifteen minutes of match. Exhausted, the Russian went out of the mat and collected her third shido. She lost a marathon final where both proved to have very advanced tactical knowledge.

As for the battles for bronze, the Russian Mariam Amkhadova defeated the Spanish Ariane Torro Soler with a waza-ari forty seconds from the end. In the second fight the Dutch judoka Elin Henninger, also by waza-ari, won the American Marisol Torro. The Dutch promise is finally on the world podium after winning the EYOF this year in Baku. The girl from Arnhem, closeby the Dutch training centre had the right balance this year to periodize her schedule and ends on the world podium today led by Italian Toniolo who became the third Italian to win the cadet world title.