Abe Uta avenges Osaka loss to Buchard

World champion Abe Uta extended her one-sided head-to-head record over her nearest rival and world number one Amandine Buchard (FRA) to 5-1 in a reverse of their last meeting at the Osaka Grand Slam in November.

Buchard, who is the only non-Japanese judoka to beat Abe on the IJF circuit, kept in the contest until the second minute of golden score when she was penalised with her third shido for passivity as teen wonder Abe started the biggest year of her young career with gold in Germany.

In the first semi-final Buchard outfought Tashkent Grand Prix silver medallist Bishrelt Khorloodoi (MGL) on the ground and submitted her opponent with shime-waza to progress to the final. In the second semi-final Abe threw Ekaterinburg Grand Slam winner Gili Cohen (ISR) for a waza-ari score with an o-goshi and effortlessly transitioned into the holddown to seal a comfortable victory.

The first bronze medal was awarded to Montreal Grand Prix silver medallist Angelica Delgado (USA) who recorded a huge win which will put her on the brink of Olympic qualification. Delgado downed Cohen by two scores without reply in a riveting display. A seoi-nage opened the scoring before an o-uchi-gari made sure of the win and the American jumped for joy as she will now jump up the rankings from her starting position this morning which was number 16 in the world.   

The second bronze medal was won by Bishrelt after 18-year-old Junior World Championships gold medallist Lkhagvasuren Sosorbaram (MGL) was given her marching orders after picking up her third shido for dropping with 28 seconds left on the clock.