Assunta Scutto fifth ever Junior World Champion for Italy

For the host country of a world championship, securing a medal from day one is always very important. By qualifying for the U48kg final, Assunta Scutto (ITA) was able to bring a smile to the faces of the entire Italian delegation. Perhaps the hardest part remained though, against Russia's Irena Khubulova, who also qualified for the final. The Junior World Championships had the best possible start with Scutto's gold medal.

In less than one minute, Italy could already say that this edition of the Junior World Championships were a success, as Assunta Scutto scored a clear ippon with an osae-komi-waza technique applied on the edge of the competition area.

Assunta Scutto said, "I have so many emotions that it is hard to explain. Today it was my day but I did not know that this morning. I wanted to win because it is a world title and because I’m at home. I was so nervous in the first round that it became my toughest contest. The rest was just perfect."

The first bronze medal contest saw the second chance for Italy to step on the podium, with Asia Avanzato facing Anastasiia Balaban (BUL), winner of the Prague Junior European Cup in July 2021. With the bronze medal matches taking place at the beginning of the final block, Asia Avanzato (ITA) was very happy to offer the first medal to her delegation, after she scored a waza-ari with a low-o-soto-gari. It’s a good start for Italy.

Rafaela Batista (BRA), silver medallist at the 2021 Pan American Junior Championships and Léa Beres (FRA), bronze medallist at the last Junior European Championships, qualified for the second bronze medal contest. 38 seconds were enough for the Brazilian athlete to win bronze after she applied a shime-waza that gave no chance to the French competitor.

Assunta Scutto became the fifth ever Junior World Champion ever in the history. Antonio Esposito, Manuel Lombardo, Christian Parlati and Alice Bellandi were ahead of Scutto.