Sarah Menezes starts well for Brazil with gold in Tyumen

Japan and Brazil topped the medal table at the Grand Slam of Tyumen. One of the contributors to the success was Brazilian Sarah Menezes. The Olympic champion ruled in Tyumen as she dominated Paris Grand Slam winner Yamagishi Emi with an emphatic win which added to her credentials as she aims for her first senior world title.

In the first final of the competition Menezes, who took bronze at the World Championships in Rio last year, swept past the Japanese judoka in every sense as she floored her with an okuri-ashi-barai for ippon after just 32 seconds. 

In the first semi-final Menezes downed Budapest Grand Prix silver medallist Valentina Moscatt from Italy by ippon with just 40 seconds remaining. In the second semi-final contest Yamahgishi was successful against double African champion Taciana Lima GBS) by by kami-shiho-gatame.

The first bronze medal was won by world number five Lima who is hitting form at the right time as she ended the spirited run of Junior World Championships winner Irina Dolgova (RUS) with a waza-ari advantage from holding down the Russian in osaekomi for 17 seconds. The second bronze medal was won by Moscatt as Russia missed out in both bronze medal contests as Russian Kristina Rumyantseva was caught with a ko-soto-gari for a yuko score after two minutes.