Mayra Aguiar knows how to peak with third world title

Brazilian Mayra Aguiar has done it again. She became the world champion for a third time and she had already achieved to win three Olympic medals in her outstanding career. Brazil saw another World Champion crowned in Tashkent, another experienced woman after Aguiar defeated Ma Zhenzhao, the first Chinese finalist since 2017.

Aguiar is 31 years old, she collected 48 medals between Games, world championships, masters, grand slams and grand prix. She suffered a terrible knee injury and it held her back for a long time but she is still one of the best competitors in history. Aguiar has returned to the World Judo Tour slowly, but nobody counted her in for the Tashkent final; no-one except her coach Andrea Berti, some insiders and above all herself, because she was the only one who knew her true state of form and she showed it from the first fight. Her quarter-final win against Japan's Hamada was a showpiece, with a perfect ippon that not many people are capable of pulling off against such an opponent.

The semi-final against the German Boehm was a formality and in the final a rival awaited who did not enjoy the confidence of those who predicted and we are the first to have made the mistake of underestimating her. She is Zhenzhao Ma who eliminated Korean Yoon who had defeated former world champion Malonga, got rid of the Polish Pacut-Kloczko in the quarter-finals and there was no-one to stop her, not even the excellent 18-year old Ukrainian Lytvynenko in the semi-finals. Ma won and she did it scoring, showing the judo that we like, the one that always goes forward, the one that doesn't speculate with the shido. By qualifying for the final, the Chinese entered a new dimension, a world unknown to her but in which Aguiar moves like a fish in water. Yang had fought Xiuli Yang ten years ago in the masters final, you can imagine the difference between the two.

The Brazilian scored with wazari and cut the pace of the Chinese, attacked enough not to be reprimanded for passivity, blocked Ma and played with the shido card and pulled the match and gold towards her.

Rookie Lytvynenko defeats Olympic Champion Hamada

Olympic champion Shori Hamada, and the German, world champion and world number one, Anna-Maria Wagner, fought in a repechage contest for a place that, at most, would give one access to a bronze medal. It was Hamada who won by ippon.

Lytvynenko became the youngest medallist of the last four years, only Uta Abe and Daria Bilodid were younger in 2018, can you imagine her potential. Hamada and Lytvynenko had never fought together, not even for a bronze medal. Twenty-two seconds of combat, a bit of kumi-kata and Lytvynenko pulverized Olympic Champion Hamada with a sensational ippon.

Pacut takes bronze for Poland

The Polish Beata Pacut-Kloczko claimed the 7^th bronze world championships medal for Poland in this century. She was endorsed by her victory at the Tel Aviv Grand Slam. German Alina Boehm won the bronze in Mongolia, but above all she is the European champion and had the pleasure of eliminating her compatriot Wagner in the quarter-finals. The fight was far from an exhibition like Lytvynenko's, but rather a very tactical one, with neither showing their cards, until the Pole surprised Boehm with waza-ari followed by wonderful ne-waza which served to consume time and drive an unarmed Boehm to despair. oseikomi, ippon and bronze.

Preliminaries

We have not said that the French Madeleine Malonga, former world champion, world and Olympic runner-up, packed her suitcase and returned to the airport after a very poor first fight against the Korean Hyunji Yoon, who won in Portugal at the beginning of the year but she, in this context, should have suffered the wrath of the Frenchwoman. In the end, the one who got angry was Malonga and for a year she has given the impression that she has not progressed, she has not reinforced her technical panoply, she does not offer anything new. We have not said that Inbar Lanir lost to Kosovar Loriana Kuka and that Israel is still without a medal in Tashkent. Nor have we said that the Dutchwoman and sure thing for the podium, Guusje Steenhuis, took the same bus as Malonga because she also had to advance her return flight.