Odette Giuffrida books fifth Grand Slam victory and second in Abu Dhabi

With Odette Giuffrida, it is certainly the experienced generation that we see from Italy. She is world number six, twice an Olympic medallist and again on the podium in Doha this season at the world championships, Giuffrida is a sure value in Italian judo and a real powerhouse among her teammates. Seeded number one in Abu Dhabi, she captured the Grand Slam gold medal in Abu Dhabi, after perfectly controlling her contests, especially the semi-final against Astrid Gneto (FRA).

At the bottom of the draw, the hierarchy was respected as well with the qualification for the final of Masha Ballhaus (GER), third in Zagreb during the summer and winner of the Tashkent Grand Slam in March.

Halfway through the final, the most dangerous had been Mascha Ballhaus, when Giuffrida anticipated her opponent and scored a waza-ari with an uchi-mata-sukashi that was particularly welcome. For Ballhaus, that was the most difficult situation, with Giuffrida leading the contest. With her tactical knowledge it looked like ‘Mission Impossible’ to come back and actually Giuffrida added a second gold medal to the tally for Italy.

Yeqing Zhu (CHN) and Jessica Pereira (BRA) met for the first bronze medal decider. After almost 2 minutes of golden score, Pereira got the third shido for passivity, which gave the victory and the medal to Zhu and China.

It was Naomi Van Krevel (NED) and Astride Gneto (FRA) who had an additional chance to appear on the podium. Van Krevel was obviously waiting for Gneto's o-uchi-gari, threatening to counter it, which she tried a couple of times, but Gneto kept looking for the perfect moment to apply her tokui-waza. Maybe she should have been a little more careful, as eventually Van Krevel countered Gneto beautifully with a massive ko-soto-gari that ended up with a makikomi technique to finish for a clear ippon. It was bronze for Van Krevel.