Laura Fazliu suddenly Olympic medal prospect for Kosovo

The final of the Budapest Masters for women U63kg was perhaps not quite the one expected at the beginning of the day but once here and seeing it unfold, it was possible to see the Kosovan Laura Fazliu as the eventual gold medallist. Tactically and physically she measured the fight. Megumi Takaichi is no pushover though and her feeling for counters and her ability to anticipate are truly elite and she was always ready for the next attack, applying her own strong left-handed gripping as preparation for something big. Fazliu who discreetly took the opportunity to slip into the final, in a quarter of the table where the seeded Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (CAN) was eliminated prematurely.

With a minute to go Fazliu ignored all Japanese commands and threw with a massive hiza-guruma for waza-ari; holding the score seeming like a huge challenge. Takaichi continued to fight back, raising the pace but Fazliu absorbed the energy and used Takaichi’s movement against her perfectly to win with a second throw, a hip movement, a gold-medal-winning one!

Takaichi was second but this might look like a ticket to go to Paris as there are not many Japanese who can defeat Agbegnenou. We will have to remember this day. 

Fazliu has fought so well all day including beating world champion Horikawa and world champion Takaichi, both from Japan. It is an outstanding performance and really highlights her dedication to training and the fantastic analysis being done by the team behind her. 

The first match for a bronze medal saw Gili Sharir (ISR) take on Megumi Horikawa (JPN) battling it out for a place on the podium. After a tight contest, it took the golden score period and a last drop on the knees from Gili Sharir to award a final shido and then victory to Megumi Horikawa, her first medal at the Masters.

Renata Zachova (CZE) faced legend Clarisse Agbegnenou (FRA) for the second bronze medal. Clarisse had not quite looked at her best through the day but it is normal and to be expected. Her resurgence to the level of taking a world title after her break was already incredible and continuing to compete at that level, managing her new life is, at this stage, almost a test to see how things lie. In the bronze match against Zachova (CZE) Agbegnenou didn’t look like a loss was possible, like a true champion.

Zachova gave it her best but with one and a half minutes to go the Frenchwoman applied a well-timed sumi-gaeshi for waza-ari and then worked hard in transition to secure the ten second hold to complete the victory. Happy with the win she made the sign to the cameras symbolising her motherhood and her baby, with a huge smile. Stepping off the tatami, the French judoka was all smiles, "It was overall a good day. I felt good despite a lot to work on in the months to come. As my teammate Amandine Buchard said, now it's time for a holiday, but after that I'll come back stronger and in a year I'll be ready to have some fun in Paris.”

To always see her win, we would almost forget that Clarisse Agbegnenou (FRA), reigning Olympic champion and no less than six times world champion, including most recently in Doha, Qatar, can also lose. Even if it doesn't happen often, it's always possible. Today the French champion picked up a bronze medal. The defeat only came in the semi-finals against Miku Takaichi (JPN), an old acquaintance.

There were signs that Agbegnenou might not have been at 100% of her means since the morning. After an effortless first round as Szofi Ozbas (HUN) failed to appear, she was knocked off balance several times by Barbara Timo (POR) but won in that round, before winning by a waza-ari ahead of Nami Nabekura (JPN), in a match that was also rather tight.

The second Japanese in the category, Miku Takaichi, was therefore too much for Clarisse Agbegnenou but she still had a chance to win bronze which she did.

Spotlight

Laura Fazliu of Kosovo booked her biggest career win in Budapest.  Last year she took a silver medal at the European Championships but we know her for some time. She won a bronze medal at the Cadet Europeans in 2017 in Kaunas. Laura took bronze at the Junior Europeans in 2019 in Vaantaa and silver in 2020. She captured a bronze medal at the Junior World Championships in Marrakech in 2019. She claimed bronze at the European U23 Championships in Porec in 2020. In 2022 she won the European U23 title in Sarajevo. In total a beautiful build-up towards such performance at the Masters. This year she claimed a bronze medal at the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv and Astana and silver at Grand Slam Tbilisi in 2023. Today’s performance makes her a candidate for an Olympic medal… again for Kosovo in a weight category that wasn’t touched before in such manner.