This is the Olympic cycle for Giovanna Scoccimarro

In Abu Dhabi Giovanna Scoccimarro took the gold medal in the final against a rather unknown Japanese, at least for the moment, who comes out of the junior universe and who, like all Japanese, was a favourite despite her youth and anonymity. This is what happens when judo is practised in Japan. Shiho Tanaka showed her face at the Belgian Open and she won a few youth tournaments in France and Russia. However as a double winner of the Kodokan Cup you cannot hide anymore, you’re on the radar.

Giovanna Scoccimarro though belongs to the cream of a category dominated with an iron fist by the Croatian Barbara Matic, two Japanese and two Dutch. 24-year old Scoccimarro is grown up meanwhile with her first Grand Slam victory and a Grand Prix victory in Montreal in 2019. The former Junior World Champ was close to Olympic bronze this year and is still developing well.

That's how things began in the final, a very tactical encounter with both trying to throw with uchi-mata. In golden score, because of course there was one, the German executed a strong ko-uchi-gari and capitalised on her trip to Abu Dhabi, showing that the Japanese are not invincible.

Former World Champion Marie-Eve Gahié lost the world title this year and was not selected for the Olympics, as if she had been forgotten. Her results suffered, so Abu Dhabi was an opportunity to relaunch a race from a standstill and even on her birthday that is the perfect ocassion. The French did it by winning bronze against the Russian Taisia Kireeva and she did an excellent job in ne-waza. Osae-komi brought the bronze and the first smile of the year, a birthday smile.

The other bronze medal travelled to Great Britain on what was an excellent day for Her Majesty's subjects. It was a tough match between the Mongolian Enkhchimeg Tserendulam and the British Kelly Petersen-Pollard but how could it be otherwise in Abu Dhabi? It ended in golden score with hansoku-make against Tserendulam. Four medallists born in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999. This is their generation who's going to harvest.