Romane Dicko rules the heavyweights

It seems that it has become almost impossible to stop the progress of the Frenchwoman Romane Dicko, who since the Tbilisi Grand Prix in 2018, has added the victories like pearls on a necklace which becomes more and more heavy to carry for her opponents; 8 in total from 9 outings!

Once again Dicko went through the elimination stages without trembling, with precision, seriousness and good humour and qualified for the final against Maryna Slutskaya, third at the last European Championships.

Due to an injury suffered earlier in the day, Maryna Slutskaya was unable to appear and Dicko added a ninth consecutive victory to her record. Impressive! The fact remains that the competition that will really count will take place this summer in Japan. Will Dicko be able to snatch the title from Sone Akira, the young Japanese world champion, the first athlete officially selected to represent Japan at the Games, after her world title in 2019? We'll find out soon, but the Japanese team has serious reasons to be concerned.

Second in the African Championships in 2020, Sonia Asselah (ALG) qualified for the bronze medal match against Beatriz Souza (BRA), winner of the recent Pan American Championships, but the Brazilian was too strong and with a masterpiece of an o-soto-gari scored ippon to win the bronze medal.

The second bronze medal contest opposed Melissa Mojica (PUR) and the current Pan-American champion Maria Suelen Altheman (BRA). Even though Mojica scored a waza-ari, she was then penalised three times to offer the victory and the medal to Altheman.