Shori Hamada puts on ne-waza masterclass in finals

Former world champion Hamada Shori (JPN) dominated double Olympic bronze medallist Mayra Aguiar (BRA) to win her second Grand Slam gold medal. Hamada extended her winning record against the Brazilian to 3-0 by pinning down Aguiar for 20 seconds with a yoko-shiho-gatame.

The Japanese star secured osaekomi twice but Aguiar slipped out on both occasions only for the fascinating ne-waza exchange to continue as Hamada, who hails from the same University as Canada’s world champion Christa Deguchi (Yamanashi), was still active and settled into a more powerful position from which her familiar foe could not escape.

In the first semi-final Paris Grand Slam bronze medallist Kaliema Antomarchi (CUB) was caught by Aguiar for a waza-ari score from a ko-uchi-gari after 47 seconds of golden score.

In the second semi-final Hamada showed off her ne-waza prowess as she maneuvered Tel Aviv Grand Prix bronze medallist Patricia Sampaio (POR) on the ground to secure osaekomi to advance to the gold medal contest.

The first bronze medal contest was won by Paris Grand Slam silver medallist Fanny Estelle Posvite (FRA) who triumphed over Olympics-bound Sampaio in a scrappy contest. Three minutes of golden score was required to produce a winner as the Portuguese was finally dismissed after picking up her third shido for a false attack.

The second bronze medal was won by world number three Anna Maria Wagner (GER) after Antomarchi could not free herself from an o-uchi-gari effort from the home judoka who won by ippon after only 35 seconds. The attack started inside and Wagner pushed and pushed until she finally broke the balance of her opponent to bring the crowd to their feet at the ISS Dome.