All japan final U63kg won by Momo Tatsukawa

The women’s class U63kg at the Grand Prix Upper Austria was an all Japanese final. Seiko Watanabe, whose best international result to date was a silver medal in Tokyo in 2022, after only three appearances on the World Judo Tour, had to fight Momo Tatsukawa, who so far did not appear in the world rankings. Japan demonstrated the depth of Japanese judo in this category.

With both Japanese judoka perfectly knowing each other, they neutralised themselves and the outcome of the final was sealed with penalties, the victory going to Momo Tatsukawa.

Behind the two Japanese athletes, the crumbs were therefore few. Andreja Leski (SLO) and Manon Deketer (FRA), a pair of world medallists already who both had an interesting morning session, came together to fight for one podium spot. Each competitor entered the second half of the contest with one shido, but then Andreja Leski received a second penalty putting her under pressure.

Leski could actually still think about stepping on the podium as the golden score started. Almost four minutes into extra time, Deketer, who was already close to scoring earlier, applied a powerful ko-soto-gake for ippon and a bronze medal.

The host country had one more chance of a podium finish thanks to Magdalena Krssakova (AUT), qualifying for the second contest for a bronze medal, against Prisca Awiti Alcaraz (MEX), who is now a regular at world level and who we have more and more pleasure in discovering, meeting her explosive judo that can put anyone on the circuit in danger.

For Awiti Alcaraz this was not an easy contest, since she had to face her opponent but also the public, who were cheering for the home athlete. The least we can say is that she did really well to score twice to win the bronze medal. Even though the crowd was logically disappointed, they congratulated both competitors in a beautiful and fair manner.