Double Junior World Champion Ai Tsunoda won in style
Ai Tsunoda Roustant of Spain, whose parents are both judo coaches, is now a double World Junior Champion. Prior to this, she was also a World Cadet Champion. Though still a junior at 20 years old, she has been competing in the IJF Seniors circuit since 2020 and recently had some seniors success, getting gold in the Madrid European Open and silver in the Tbilisi Grand Slam (both in June). In Guayaquil, she won all her matches in style.
Tsunoda defeated her first opponent, Eliana Aguiar (VEN) with a left-sided “floating elbow” morote-seoi-nage, a variation that is popular amongst players in Japan.
For her second bout, she relied on a left-sided double-sleeve sode into kouchi-gari combination to defeat Brenda Olaya (COL).
In her semifinal match, she threw again with a sode but this time to the right side, to overcome Samira Bock (GER).
In the final, she once again used the “floating elbow” morote-seoi-nage to take her opponent, Fidan Ogel (TUR), to the ground and pin her for the win.
All in, it was a very impressive performance by Tsunoda in her last competition as a junior.
Result | City | Date |
---|---|---|
2 | Paris | 30 Jul |
1 | Abu Dhabi | 21 May |
1 | Zagreb | 26 Apr |
3 | Belgrade | 2023 |
2 | Montpellier | 2023 |