Andreja Leski shows world clash and tactics

Being the two highest seeded athletes of the category, Andreja Leski (SLO), silver medallist from the last world championships, and Geke Van Den Berg (NED), with a record of two grand prix medals so far, reached the final without facing too many problems in Zagreb's Grand Prix final U63kg.

After a first match against Annabelle Winzig (GER), who was a serious contender, Leski won two more bouts by ippon, while Van Den Berg won all her preliminary rounds before full time.

Most of the final was a strong opposition of guard between the two judoka, Van Den Berg looking stronger than Leski, but the Slovenian was stable and didn't fear being under pressure. As the match approached its end, Leski cleverly went for a hip movement before changing direction within a blink of an eye to dive under the centre of gravity of her opponent for a sumi-gaeshi for waza-ari and a second gold medal in a grand prix.

Israel is another team that counts on the World Judo Tour with the team having won a bronze medal in the first Olympic mixed team event in Tokyo. Thus seeing new Israeli names is always interesting, to discover who might be their future stars. Of course Inbal Shemesh is not totally unknown, with her three grand prix medals prior to the Zagreb Grand Prix. She reached the bronze medal contest and faced Renata Zachova (CZE), the 2020 junior European champion, for a place on the podium. After little more than a minute, Zachova took a strong lead with a waza-ari from a low counterattack, but a few seconds later, Shemesh scored back with a left-handed ippon-seoi-nage. It was then time for golden score! It is after 5'16 that Zachova eventually scored a second waza-ari as Shemesh was trying to take a top grip, with a left-handed uchi-mata, to win her best medal in a grand prix to date.

Only 20 years old, Laura Fazliu is another new member of the powerful Kosovan team, who might shine in the future. She reached the bronze medal contest against Angelika Szymanska (POL), an u23 European medallist in 2020. Fazliu never really looked under threat from her opponent and after a few uchi-mata attempts, she deployed her aerial move to score ippon and win a well-deserved medal.

IJF Events Director Lisa Allan said: "I was intrigued by one story today as I noticed the Dutch National Coach Michael Bazynski working with the exciting Geke Van Den Berg at -63kg. In round two Van Den Berg faced Nadja Bazynski (GER), Michael’s daughter and this must have presented him with some heartache. As always, judo won in this situation and Michael gave the mat-side chair to his colleague for that contest, in order to not run the risk of disappointing either judoka, both of whom must understand his dilemma. Fair play shows itself in these situations and I’m always proud of the community in which we work.”