Rika Takayama simply the best in U78kg

For the first time in a grand slam final, Georgia Stangherlin of Italy had nothing to lose but she had to be careful with Rika Takayama's ne-waza skills. In less than a minute, the Japanese judoka used them wrapping up her opponent while working on the arm and eventually Stangherlin had to submit to the ude-garami. It was ippon and gold for Japan in Tashkent.

The first match for a bronze medal opposed Patricia Sampaio (POR) who surpassed Wagner in the repechage after a long golden score, and Metka Lobnik (SLO). After a rather balanced duel during the first half of the match, Sampaio began to be slightly more active than her opponent, who was penalised with a first shido, marking the only difference at the end of normal time.

In the golden score period the winner would be the one who wanted it the most and at that game, it was Patricia Sampaio to step forward, scoring a waza-ari with a left seoi-nage. This bronze medal for Sampaio shows good consistency since the beginning of the year, with a gold medal in Portugal, at home, a fifth place in Paris and bronze in Tel Aviv and now also in Tashkent. Let's hope that the series continues for the Portuguese judoka.

To complete the podium, we had to wait for the result of the match between Zhenzhao Ma (CHN) and Fanny Estelle Posvite (FRA). After four minutes of normal time, there were two shido apiece, the last one being awarded to Posvite for going against the arm, but as it was not associated with a throwing technique, it was a simple shido. In golden score the French judoka seemed to take the advantage, at least physically, when Ma counter-attacked her with ko-soto-gari that was awarded a waza-ari. The bronze medal went to Ma and China.

It was not good to be one of the top favourites of the competition today at -78kg. Anna-Maria Wagner, from Ravensburg in Germany, world champion in 2021 in Budapest, was uncertain a few days before the competition, after believing she had broken her nose. Luckily for her, that wasn't the case and so she lined up for the competition as the number one seed but she fell against the French judoka Fanny Estelle Posvite, who herself lost in the semi-final to the Japanese Rika Takayama, on penalties.

In the second part of the draw, we expected Zhenzhao Ma (CHN) or Alina Boehm, but it was finally the Italian Giorgia Stangherlin who obtained her ticket for the final, to join winner Takayama.