Judo lightweight Catarina Costa gives Portugal head start

The World Judo Tour is back with the Grand Prix of Portugal in the city of Almada just outside Lisbon over the big bridge and the Portuguese had all reasons to cheer from the start as Catarina Costa claimed the first gold medal for the host country. Costa won her third gold medal in the IJF Tour.

What better way to start the season than by entering the final of the first grand prix of the year. This is what Catarina Costa did and doing it at home certainly had an even better flavour for the Portuguese judoka. In the final she found Hyekyeong Lee, a representative of the bloated and successful Korean delegation.

Supported by the public, concentrated and determined, Costa began the match with gold as the only option. During normal time, a little dominated by the strong grip of her opponent, she was nevertheless the more active player on the tatami and Lee was penalised twice. As golden score commenced Costa was also penalised but immediately after the penalty she executed a perfect de-ashi-barai for a waza-ari that was confirmed by the video playback. Lee landed on the whole side of the body at 90 degrees or more to the rear. According to the new regulations, there was no discussion.

Catarina Costa declared, "I came here to get sensations. I’m far from being at 100% but my head was right, much better than the body. It always helps to have the crowd on your side but today it was for sure a mental win."

Frenchwoman Lea Beres (FRA) found the Belgian Ellen Salens on the way to the podium in the first bronze medal contest. Both athletes were qualified for the first time for the final block of a World Judo Tour event and this time it was Lea Beres who won, after a third shido was given to Salens during golden score. So officially, Beres, who was coached by Olympic and world champion Lucie Decosse, is the first athlete of the 2022 season to win a medal.

A common geographical point, Croatia, united the two other athletes qualified for bronze. Indeed, a silver medallist in Zagreb last September, Mélanie Vieu (FRA) was hoping for at least the same result, if not better, but she had to settle for the contest for the bronze medal against Dutch judoka Amber Gersjes, junior world champion in 2017 and that was also in Croatia. Here in Portugal, one of them had to add a nice line on their prize list. Imitating her teammate, Melanie Vieu used almost two minutes of the golden score period to eventually find an opportunity to throw her opponent, after only shido had been given so far.