Mayu Honda regains the junior world title U70kg to Japan

At the Junior World Championships in Odivelas the team of Japan impresses with a bunch of unseeded athletes and so far the team excels each day with multiple medallists and meanwhile the team captured seven world champions which includes the category U70kg. It was the Japanese Mayu Honda who won her spot to join a Brazilian number one seed in the final.

The final between Kaillany Cardoso and Honda therefore promised to be exciting. What is certain is that even before stepping onto the tatami, these two competitors had already made a name among the juniors after the elimination phases.

Cardoso was surprised by a first little foot-sweep technique of Honda that was awarded a waza-ari. Despite of her efforts to come back and a strong attack that Honda escaped from, miraculously, Cardoso could do nothing to stop the Japanese from winning another gold medal. This was the case quickly after Honda took her leg out and pinned down her opponent for ippon. Gold number 6 for Japan was assured.

With just one bronze medal to their name so far, Brazil, a great judo country, was looking for more honours here in Portugal. It therefore took three days of waiting for a Brazilian judoka to begin the final block with the absolute guarantee of stepping on the podium.

This performance is to the credit of Kaillany Cardoso, who was not among the favourites of the competition. After a first round won against Nandani Vats (IND), then against Azhar Askhat (KAZ), she won against the Israeli Gaya Bar Or, before eliminating the Slovenian Kaja Schuster in the semi-final.

In the other half of the draw, it was also an unranked athlete who qualified for the final. Following in the footsteps of her teammates, who had been particularly energetic for two days, it was the Japanese Mayu Honda who won her spot to join Cardoso. As we know, the world ranking is always an interesting indicator, even if its precision is more relative among juniors than among seniors, knowing that there is less tactical calculation, more risk-taking and therefore more uncertainty with young athletes than with their elders. It remains true that Japan arrived with judoka perhaps less well known on the world circuit than others, but whose capacity to transcend themselves on D-day is certain.

They were 100% European contests which we attended for the two bronze medals auctioned in the category. In the first contest, April Lynn Fohouo (SUI) and Elena Dengg (AUT) faced each other, for the second time in a month, since they already met at the junior European championships, with victory to the Austrian judoka. Dengg did it again, with a waza-ari scored during extra time. The bronze would travel home with her to Austria.

For the second bronze medal it was Adelina Novitzki (ISR) and Kaja Schuster (SLO) who stepped on the tatami. It was a lightning fast victory for Kaja Schuster who threw Novitzki for ippon within a few seconds with a shoulder movement.

After two years of domination by Ai Tsunoda of Spain, Japan regained the world title. Mami Asahi was the last before Tsunoda in 2019 although all names remained Japanese. Before Asahi a ten years draught since Tachimoto was the last in 2009, the later Olympic Champion. So far only Tachimoto was the only Olympic Campion among the among the now 15 Junior World Champions in U70kg.