Julia Figueroa back on golden spot in Abu Dhabi

The final in the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi for women U48kg was between Julia Figueroa from Spain and Italian Francesca Milani. The Italian is taller and seems superior, but it is only an appearance and Figueroa has years of experience. Milani the Spaniard to attack and she did so successfully, scoring a fabulous ippon, winning her first gold on the world judo tour since 2019 and her first medal in Abu Dhabi, the only tournament on the circuit in which she had not won metal. All this comes a week after finishing fifth in Tashkent.

Bronze for Abiba Abuzhakynova

Another Italian Assunta Scutto is up against Abiba Abuzhakynova, the generation that pushes hard. Scutto, junior world champion and third in Tashkent. The Kazakh was also one of the revelations and countered an attack by the Italian from the start and scored waza-ari. Scutto was too impatient and made the same mistake again. Abuzhakynova scored again and took the bronze.

China takes bronze by Guo

The second bronze was the opportunity for Catarina Costa to redeem herself and for Zongying Guo to confirm the strength of the Chinese team. The truth is that this fight was very tactical, unattractive to less experienced eyes, but in the end there was the same reward: a medal. In the Golden score the referee disqualified the Costa. The first medal for Guo in a grand slam.

Prelims

Among the candidates for the title, the first to leave early was Shira Rishony. The Israeli was eliminated by the excellent South African Geronay Whitebooi, whom we hadn't seen since Mongolia and when she goes to a tournament she leaves her skin out on the mat. The first seed, Julia Figueroa, gave a reality check to the Turkish Merve Azak, author of a huge ippon in the first round against the Brazilian Alexia Nascimento. The Spanish took twenty seconds to put the Turkish where she wanted, on the ground, to immobilise her and teach her that a spectacular victory can be a prelude to a quick and cruel defeat because that is what the highest level means. Figueroa is one of those who does not change when things work. Of course, her fight against the Kazakh Abiba Abuzhakynova was more demanding and they reached golden score, where the Spanish solved it with her traditional ne-waza, an ippon and she was off to the semi-finals.  

For Figueroa it was her third victory at a Grand Slam after Tyumen in 2015 and Baku in 2016 and her 12^th Grand Slam medal, more than any other Spaniard.