Christa Deguchi untouchable to gold in Baku

Portuguese Telma Monteiro, winner of uncountable World Judo Tour medals and with an array of Olympic victories and a staggering continental domination showed the judo community that she isn’t done yet. With a silver medal today in Baku she shows she is ready for this Olympic qualification. She overcame Samardzic (BIH), Ilieva (BUL) and Libeer (BEL) all fell at her say-so and a place in the final against Christa Deguchi awaited her.

The final was a real battle of the old masters with arguably the two competitors best equipped to overcome the challenges of all newcomers. Neither took any prisoners and when throws weren’t forthcoming they strategised like generals and won anyway. At their level the fight for the right grip is what must be won first. Against one another this was the focus and far from being dull with its throwless scoreline, it was fascinating and educational.

In normal time the Portuguese took two penalties compared with the Canadian’s single yellow card and in golden score we had the feeling that Deguchi was getting tired of the game and of the dropping attacks of Monteiro. She pinned the grip and chopped away trying to knock her rival down but not with any definitive outcome. She followed with a tomoe-nage attempt and it became clear that a 3 shido win was likely for the Pan-American. Monteiro forgot to answer the call and so it was that Deguchi won her 6th grand slam gold.

Lele Nairne sensational but with empty hands

Picture a quarter-final between the current Olympic champion Nora Gjakova (KOS) and British competitor Lele Nairne, who has just won gold in Perth at the Oceania continental open but has no World Judo Tour medals. It was Nairne to win that battle.

Gjakova’s nemesis on this first day, Lele Nairne, fought against Ilieva for the second bronze. The Bulgarian had studied and pinned Nairne’s desire to move, keeping the fight on the centre of the mat. At a minute to go, Nairne took umbrage and lapped the mat to re-energise herself. She attacked. It failed, but it showed a renewed will and the refusal to give up the chance of winning her first grand slam medal.

At full time, with no score and no penalty to be seen, the restart immediately brought a drop in the gripping pace and a first shido for each. In a ne-waza exchange that came from almost nothing at all, a minute into golden score, Ilieva freed her trapped leg and held Nairne for ippon. It’s a devastating finish for the Brit after such a powerful beginning but Ilieva have just a little more for the medal and took her place on the rostrum for her own first grand slam medal, adding to her 4 grand prix medals.

Nairne has made it into highlight reels on the WJT in the past despite not reaping the rostrum-based rewards. She throws with everything she has and she’s brave, taking great satisfaction from competing in fun fights and pushing herself towards the spectacular! She’s unpredictable and wild and with this mix she caught Gjakova for a waza-ari with a super-low o-uchi-gari in the middle of the contest. It can happen to anyone but Nora was not pleased. Somehow though, she couldn’t get into the gripping or reconcile the instability of the match. No strategy was strong enough to deal with the frenzy of Nairne. It came close with the shido game but the Brit was able to protect her position and move into a semi-final against 2019 world champion Christa Deguchi (CAN). That fight didn’t go the same way and although it went into golden score, Deguchi didn’t look in danger and eventually took the win in golden score.