Gefen Primo beats her nemesis Buchard and grabs gold

The final of the Grand Slam in Ulaanbatar U52kg was won by Gefen Primo who defeated her nemesis Amandine Buchard who defeated her five times previously. This time in Mongolia it was different. On one side we had the passion of Primo, while Buchard could offer her experience. Very active and on the move permanently, Primo bothered Buchard's tactics and was the first one to score with an opportunist’s yoko-guruma. It was her turn then to play tactics and she did it well, keeping her waza-ari alive until the final gong. It was a well-deserved gold medal for Gefen Primo, the second one at that level of competition.

It is by reading all these names that one takes on the full dimension of the category. We are on the top level in the world. About Buchard, her first round allowed her to test her kata-guruma and her ippon-seoi-nage. She then won brilliantly ahead of Khorloodoi Bishrelt (UAE) and the Hungarian Reka Pupp in the semi-finals, serious and dangerous opponents that Buchard mastered perfectly. Primo vs Buchard promised to be full of suspense but it was Primo to prevail for the first time against Buchard.

The first bronze medal contests opposed Sosorbaram Lkhagvasuren (MGL) and Reka Pupp (HUN). In golden score, as Pupp had anticipated the sasae attempts from Lkhagvasuren, she launched an uchi-mata for waza-ari and the bronze medal.

We knew Diyora Keldiyorova was in good shape and performing well. Winner in Tbilisi, with among other things a victory full of panache against the Olympic champion Distria Krasniqi, and then silver medallist in Doha, during the world championships, her place as the number one seed in Ulaanbaatar was not usurped. Until the semi-finals, everything went like clockwork for Keldiyorova, who had a string of victories. There was still a step to climb for Khorloodoi Bishrelt (UAE) and Diyora Keldiyorova (UZB) to get on the podium. She was waiting for the combination, seoi-juji-gatame. Keldiyorova tried it over and over again until it worked, after a very intense contest between two judoka who did not want to let it go. The bronze medal was for Diyora Keldiyorova today.