Lara Cvjetko wins biggest judo price so far

Brazilian Maria Portela has won her 35th World Cup medal, 21 in the IJF World Tour. She can still do it at the age of 33 and wants to qualify again for the Games. However a new generation stood up, many generations. Generations born in the eighties, nineties and zeros stood on the podium. The zeros are the ones that can shine here in Portugal.

It is seen that on Saturday at the Grand Prix of Portugal there was no need to be a favourite. The Brazilian Maria Portela (1988) and the Spanish Ai Tsunoda (2002) were the announced scarecrows, with relatively affordable draws, being seeded has to be for something, maybe a golden future. That was the theory! In practice, Portela crossed paths with the Dutch Jorien Visser (1999). We have already said that the Netherlands has far surpassed the excesses of the end of the year. Visser was on her way to the final when she collided with Szabina Gercsak (1996). The last time we saw the Hungarian on a World Judo Tour podium of the IJF World Tour was in 2018  although she won the European Open in Luxembourg in 2019. Little or nothing is known about her. In Lisbon she reached the last step with a powerful, offensive and entertaining judo for the public. For their part, it is clear that Croatia is not limited to world champion Barbara Matic. There are women of quality and we have all seen it in Portugal. To face Gercsak, Croatia sent Lara Cvjetko, 20 years old, runner-up in the Junior Worlds and a silver in a Grand Slam that already hangs on the wall of her room. So the revenant against a representative of the rising Croatian team and as it seems that the wind is blowing in favour of Croatia, the gold returned to Zagreb after a frankly boring final, decided by an accumulation of shidos.

As for the bronze, Portela and Tsunoda brought out the pride that great athletes treasure when things go wrong. They did not want to leave empty-handed and with bad feelings in their bodies. The Brazilian defeated the Korean Hee-Ju Han and the Spanish managed her side. Gold and bronze are not the same but a medal is a medal.