Shido victory for Christa Deguchi against Klimkait in Ulaanbaatar final

It was a competition of a very high world level in the U57kg category. Jessica Klimkait and Christa Deguchi proved once again that they are truly the top contenders in this weight category. The two judokas were pitted against each other in the big final at the Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam in Mongolia.

Deguchi, the reigning world champion, clinched the gold medal by biding her time and forcing her opponent to make errors. Klimkait received two penalties in the first 75 seconds of the bout.

She later received a third, giving Deguchi the win. “Jessica and Christa were solid all day. Once they’re in the final, I play a smaller role. I don’t want to interfere, so I mainly just help them with their warm-ups. Today’s final was very tactical. It came down to penalties, and Christa came out ahead,” said national coach Antoine Valois-Fortier.

Deguchi began her day with a first-round bye. She then defeated Eunsong Park of South Korea and Altantsetseg Batsukh of the United Arab Emirates in the next two rounds. In the semi-final, she bested neutral international athlete Kseniia Galitskaia, who later won a bronze medal.

“Christa should be proud of her win. It’s a major step in a long process that will lead all the way to the Paris Olympics. I believe she’s happy with her day. It’s always extra stressful when you’re up against one of your own countrymates, but both of them are among the best in the world, and it’s great to see them compete against each other so often,” added Valois-Fortier.

As for Klimkait, before facing her teammate in the final, she dispatched of Anastasija Sokirjanska of Latvia, Nekoda Smythe-Davis of Great Britain and Mimi Huh of South Korea, who also won a bronze medal.

“In her first three fights, Jessica really set the tempo and made some great throws. She fought very impressively right up to the end,” explained her coach.

Today’s medal was Deguchi’s first gold medal at a Grand Slam since she won in Baku in November 2022.

The last time the two Canadians fought each other, at the Tel Aviv Grand Slam in February, Klimkait was the victor in the big final.

Telma Monteiro (POR) is a living legend of world judo. Multiple times a world medallist and an Olympic medallist, she is still in the race for a fifth qualification, for the Paris Games. The points won in Ulaanbaatar now count for 100%, so it is certain that her presence in the final block of the day further strengthens her chances. To get on the podium, she still had to face Mimi Huh. Aware of Mimi Huh's power, Telma Monteiro was using a combination of attacks coming from afar and sutemi-waza that protected her from big throws. These tactics did the trick as Mimi Huh was penalised one more time than Monteiro during normal time. However, as golden score was unfolding, Monteiro was penalised a second time too. After four minutes of additional time, Mimi Huh eventually caught Monteiro with a shime-waza for ippon. Huh did a standard koshi-jime on Monteiro, who signals that the lapel was over her mouth but the referee isn't able to see that so when Monteiro taps, an ippon is given, and the bronze medal was for Huh. 

Nekoda Smythe-Davis (GBR) offered herself a great opportunity to climb on the third step of the podium, against Kseniia Galitskaia (AIN). Apart from her clean loss to Klimkait, Smythe-Davis showed some good things during the preliminary rounds of the morning session. The bronze medal match was quite balanced in terms of score, as none were inscribed on the scoreboard. Smythe-Davis was slightly dominating with the kumi-kata but with the side position of her opponent, it was difficult to find throwing opportunities. It was eventually Kseniia Galitskaia who scored first with a variation of yoko-guruma. Nekoda Smythe-Davis, to avoid the landing, put her hands down and so the throw was awarded a waza-ari. The bronze medal goes to Kseniia Galitskaia.