Patricia Tomankova offers Slovakia golden milestones

At the Cadet World Championships in Zagreb the level of excitement was stunning on the first day. The number of surprises or the passion that always comes hand in hand with elite sport. Day 1 of the Cadet World Championships is over and we have four new world champions to celebrate with.

At U40 kg the world number 1, Patricia Tomankova (SVK) has been at the top of her category for two years and was pegged to be the runaway champion but it wasn’t so easy! Her semi-final against Aiora Martin Carriches (ESP) became a high energy marathon and it wasn’t until the 4th minute of golden score that the Slovakian could swing into position successfully to finish a tomoe-nage for waza-ari.

The first bronze medal of the tournament, fought between Dilara Kandymova (TKM) and Mathilde Aurel (FRA), was a seoi-nage battle but with Kandymova leading by number of attacks, ability to transition to ne-waza and the positivity of her gripping, she persevered and finally scored waza-ari just as the golden score period began. A bronze medal for Turkmenistan has been on the cards for some time as for the last couple of years their teams have been ever-more-present on the circuit at all ages. There is certainly more to come from them.

The second bronze was won by Nina Auer (AUT), the number two seed who was beaten by Aurel in the quarter-final. She dominated in the repechage final and then gave Martin Carriches a ne-waza scare with a shime-waza attempt which nearly won in the first 30 seconds of the medal contest. The Spanish judoka came back well with an ashi-waza kinsa before everything evened out and both became more careful. At full time there were two penalties apiece. The third came for Martin Carriches at 90 seconds into extra time.

Tomankova and Yuldashbekova (KAZ) fought the final for only a minute and a half. Tomankova’s ranking and results suggested she would be world champion today but getting the job done is quite another thing. She was predicted the winner last year in Sarajevo and head to settle for bronze. This year she left no space at all for doubt and finally had the gold. Tomankova is the first IJF world gold medallist ever for Slovakia, from cadet, junior or senior championships!