Japan hits bullseye at day one in Portugal

Japan was clear in its ambitions on the first day of the Junior World Championships in Odivelas today. With four gold medals the lightweights have clearly taken back position. If anyone doubted about the Japanse depth in judo in all age categories, that doubt should be gone after this opening day.

Japanese Kano Miyaki claimed the world title after her final against Turkish judoka Sila Ersin. Miyaki who was not one of the favourites on the morning of the competition, which with the Japanese judoka is never a very reliable indication.

The final began with a fast rhythm from Sila Ersin, imposing her left arm strongly over Miyaki's head, deep down the back. Miyaki's mission was clear, she would have to control the sleeve to be able to launch her seoi-nage, which she began to do. She didn't have to look for more opportunities in tachi-waza. Like all the Japanese athletes, Miyaki is already very powerful on the floor and when the ippon-seoi-nage is not working, that might open opportunities in ne-waza, which happened; osai-komi for Miyaki and ippon. This brought a first gold medal to Japan.

Italy, came with a consistent and efficient team to Portugal and began the medal harvest with a guaranteed bronze medal, as Giulia Ghiglione and Asia Avanzato competed to reach the podium. It must be said that it's never easy to compete against your teammate. First of all, most of the time you know perfectly what she's going to do and the same applies for her.

On the other hand, winning a world bronze medal is something and you definitely don't want to let that go to someone you train with regularly. Ghiglione and Avanzato neutralised themselves perfectly during normal time, with only Ghiglione having a shido to her name when golden score started. After three minutes of extra time, Ghiglione collected a second penalty that put her under more pressure. It took more than 7 minutes of golden score altogether for  Asia Avanzato to eventually counter-attack her opponent for a liberating waza-ari and the bronze medal.

The second bronze medal was decided between Konul Aliyeva (AZE) and Kristina Dudina (AIN), who after eliminating the world number one, hoped to finish on the highest step of the podium, a thought which was brewing without accounting for Kano Miyaki. If the first bronze medal contest was long, but this time it was way shorter with Kristina Dudina totally committed to throwing, producing a massive ko-soto-gake for a clear ippon. The bronze medal was for Kristina Dudina today.

Türkiye is a country of judo, this no longer needs to be demonstrated. For years, Turkish athletes have performed on the senior international scene, on the World Judo Tour as well as during world championships and the Olympic Games. It is a long-term job to regularly provide judoka for the senior national team. This work begins with cadets and juniors, perhaps even before that, and Türkiye has understood this very well.

The world number one in the category today and therefore the number one seed was Merve Azak (TUR). Despite her rank, she did not manage to advance beyond the second round, defeated by Kristina Dudina (AIN).