Kseniia Galitskaia gives Russia the lead in the medal table

Only 16 years old, Kerem Primo was nevertheless the favourite of the competition and she didn't disappoint her fans fighting at the Junior World Championships in the Italian city of Olbia. The Israeli qualified for the final where she faced Kseniia Galitskaia (RUS). Primo showed all her technical and tactical skills during the preliminary rounds, which is impressive with an athlete of such a young age. She obviously benefits from the experience of her senior teammates in the national team.

We witnessed a very intense final, with Galitskaia being taller than her opponent and trying some massive uchi-mata attacks, when Kerem Primo seemed to be quickly the most dangerous. What we can say for sure is that both athletes were very generous in all their attacks and it maybe because Primo was too generous that she put everything into one uchi-mata attempt that Galitskaia immediately overpassed to throw her with an acrobatic uchi-mata sukashi for ippon.

Kseniia Galitskaia said, "It was the first time we faced each other so I did not know what to expect. I saw she likes to attack; me too! And that is what happened. We both attacked at the same time but I was faster. That is how I won."

In the first bronze medal match Veronica Toniolo (ITA), who was coached by her dad, faced Ozlem Yildiz (TUR). After little more than one minute in the golden score period, Toniolo was penalised a third time offering the victory and the medal to Ozlem Yildiz.

The second bronze medal contest of the category saw Faiza Mokdar, who used to compete in the lower weight division, facing Natalia Elkina (RUS) for place on the podium. The match started with a clear domination of Natalia Elkina who seemed stronger than her opponent but on the floor Faiza Mokdar did a really nice piece of groundwork to pin down the Russian. Within a few seconds, Elkina simply stood up, as if it was easy. Mokdar didn't give up and pinned her down again. This time she held her down for 20 seconds to win the bronze medal.