Beatriz Souza shows her big throws in Abu Dhabi

Beatriz Souza did her job in Abu Dhabi. First seed and world number 1, the Brazilian qualified for the final hardly breaking a sweat. Despite her youth, just 23 years old, she is used to great challenges and she has reaped good results, many medals and has never dropped below seventh place in the last two years. She is consistent and regular in a sport that does not forgive mistakes.

In the final she faced the heaviest judoka on the circuit, the young Frenchwoman Léa Fontaine. Despite her size, Fontaine is capable of producing high quality judo, which has allowed her to win silver at the Paris Grand Slam and return to fight for gold a month later.

In less than a minute Souza scored waza-ari with soto-maki-komi, taking advantage of a Fontaine error and from there she dedicated herself to controlling the fight with very strong kumi-kata. It's called experience and the result was a gold medal, her first in a grand slam and Souza's third win against Fontaine in their three head-to-heads.

Anzhela Gasparian and Raz Hershko are light heavyweights and battled for bronze. Hershko ended the year like a rocket, winning gold in Paris and bronze in Baku. For Gasparian it was a new experience. She was not daunted but she fell because Hershko was more intelligent with the te-waza and a change of direction.

French and junior world champion Coralie Hayme was not the favourite in front of Adiyasuren Amarsaikhan, one of the jewels of the new Mongolian quarry, who already presented her credentials in Baku with a silver medal. Hayme let the hurricane pass and with thirty seconds to go she produced a seoi-nage out of nowhere. Bronze for the French but from what we have seen these two will meet often over the next few years.