Junior Worlds on its way with a few surprises

The first surprises have been unveiled at the Junior World Championships. The field is very competitive today and the day started early in Marrakech. The first to qualify for rge finals was Japanese lightweight promise Wakana Koga. She won her poule and was opposed to Andrea Stojadinov of Serbia in the semi final. Stojadinov who won the bronze last year, so it was a potential final, but decided by Koga.

Interesting is to see that the youngsters, the cadets are doing really well. Poule C was rough with Portuguese hope Raquel Brito who drew against Tugce Beder of Turkey who keeps on pushing in Europe and reached the semi final against Shirine Boukli of France who upset Aiko Watanabe of Japan who was sent to the repechage. Boukli bested Beder in the second semi final. Koga will now fight BOukli in the final, one of the two will follow up Daria Bilodid in this category, we will know late afternoon.

Also in the race for gold U52kg Larissa Pimenta of Brazil who recently won the silver medal at the Grand Slam in Brasilia and Sosorbaram Lkhagvasuren who won Grand Slam silver in Düsseldorf this year. It was Lkhagvasuren who defeated Pimenta in the semis and will now fight Taipeh sensation Hsu Lin Hsuan in the final.

Men U60kg showed a few surprises with world number one Renan Torres (BRA) who lost to Sukhbat Byambasuren (MGL) but was caught himself by Russian Konstantin Simeonidis. Also seeded player Rovshan Aliyev (AZE) lost early as well as Turkish Mihrac Akkus who was one of the favourites. Both Japanese lost but Ken Suematsu (JPN) is still in the race for bronze. Simeonidis will fight Agmed Yusifov in the final U60kg.

Strong Romanian Lucian Bors Dumitrescu is still on course for gold. So is Brazil’s strong man Michael Marcelino who was opposed to Willian Lima in the semif final. Lima was on form last week in Brasilia with Grand Slam bronze and also this time he qualified for the final. He will now fight Takeshi Takeoka in the final who defeated Lucian Bors Dumitrescu.