Anna-Maria Wagner is now the benchmark

Ever since Anna-Maria Wagner recovered from her serious injury and later from depression, Wagner is as constant as a star in the sky. World champion and a bronze medallist at Tokyo 2020, the German arrived in Georgia with the status of a great favourite. She did not tremble in any fight and won them all by ippon until reaching the final to face a woman with a huge record.

The Brazilian Mayra Aguiar has also had serious physical problems that she has overcome patiently. In Tbilisi she offered seriousness and concentration, plus good judo, which helped her to eliminate the French former world champion Audrey Tcheumeo in the semi-finals.

Wagner (GER) is getting stronger every day, with more and more confidence. In the final she came out in a rush and at 45 seconds she scored waza-ari. Aguiar (BRA) reacted but something was missing to translate it into points. She worked hard to find her way but was almost on the receiving end of another score and that shook her resolve and she lost the initiative. Wagner controlled the end of the match by working on the ground. It is her second victory of the year in as many tournaments, after winning in Antalya.

Natalie Powell and Audrey Tcheumeo could have seen each other in the final because they have the level for it. They fought for the first bronze instead. The British fighter scored ippon and expelled the French from the podium.

The Ukrainian Yelyzaveta Lytvynenko surprised everyone with excellent judo, despite her 18 years and her position of 127 in the world ranking. She won her first fight, made it very difficult for Tcheumeo and won the honour of fighting for bronze. To win that she had to defeat the Dutch Karen Stevenson. It was not a beautiful fight but we had to go assign the medal. The one who found it was Stevenson, with twenty seconds to go; waza-ari and a medal. Lytvynenko could appreciate how far she still has to go to the top, but she keeps climbing.

Wagner: “I think I’m more back in the game, but not as much as last year. I think there’s still work to do, keep going to training. It was good today but I don’t feel so good. I’m really happy about this gold medal but in the fight I don’t feel so good. So I think I have to work more, be more focused and feel better with a better shape”.