Mami Asahi defeats Taimazova in Junior World final U70kg

Asahi Mami of Japan arrived in Marrakech with just a bronze medal at the Leibnitz Junior European Open 2019 on her record. But on the third day of competition at the Junior worlds, she entered the final against the finalist of the last Universiade, Madina Taimazova (RUS). Asahi's left-handed uchi-mata seemed to take the lead, even if it failed to score.

Yet the pressure that the Japanese put on her opponent, little by little was getting more and more effective. On a counter, Asahi scored a first waza-ari that she continued with an immobilization but she could not control long enough. During the following sequence, Asahi and Taimazova engaged in a common uchi-mata that benefited the Japanese who won the second gold medal for her delegation.

O-uchi-gari's specialist, Mina Agneta Ricken (GER) was opposed to her compatriot Marlene Galandi (GER) in the first match for the bronze medal. After a little more than two minutes, the match seemed particularly balanced, knowing that the two athletes perfectly know each other. But then Galandi scored ippon on an unstoppable action-reaction on tani-otoshi.

In the second match for a place on the podium, Morgane Fereol (FRA) confirmed the good health of women's judo in France by qualifying against the representative of the rising nation in women, Mariam Tchanturia of Georgia. The French quickly took the lead scoring a first waza-ari. Exhausted after a long day of competition in the heat of Morocco, the French had all the trouble in the world to keep her advantage, but she managed in extremis to win the second medal of the French delegation in Marrakech.