Chelsie Giles grabs claims birthday present in Almada

Chelsie Giles turned 26 this week and she was a safe bet on the World Judo Tour and her place as world number one has not been usurped with the results in Almada. The silver medallist in Israel at the World Judo Masters in December, silver medallist also a few weeks before at the Tashkent World Championships and, consequently, the number one seed here in Portugal, nothing seems to go against her all the way to reaching the finals, as she has here once again.

This was the case, after victories over Rebeka Keller (HUN), Maria Siderot (POR), Sita Kadamboeva (UZB) and finally Ana Perez Box (ESP) in the semi-finals. To put it another way, nothing seemed to be able to stop Giles on her way to the gold medal. After her victory over the Spaniard Perez Box, she still had a second Spanish athlete to face in the final though, since it was Estrella Lopez Sheriff (ESP) who qualified for the last match of the category, after a flawless performance in pool D.

Chelsie Giles is known for her very good ne-waza, but her tachi-waza is definitely strong as well and she proved it in the golden score period of the final. After a closed contest during normal time, she eventually scored a masterpiece ippon with a wide uchi-mata. She was the top favourite and she didn't disappoint her fans.

Julie Weill Dit Morey (FRA) was opposed to Fabiola Diaz (VEN) for a first bronze medal. It was a one-way match as Weill Dit Morey clearly dominated Diaz. The Frenchwoman scored a first waza-ari before pinning down her opponent for ippon, after freeing her leg in a perfect manner. This is medal number one in a grand prix for Julie Weill Dit Morey and already the third one for team France on this first day of competition in Portugal.

The second bronze medal was disputed between Naomi Van Krevel (NED) and Ana Perez Box (ESP). With a massive soto-makikomi for waza-ari, Van Krevel took a strong lead and eventually won her first bronze medal in the IJF World Tour.

These bronze medal matches are showing the potential of the newcomers on the circuit as the 4 contenders at this stage of the tournament have very little reference between them on the World Judo Tour, with the 18 year old Venezuelan being a particularly spectacular and welcome surprise.