Rochele Nunes takes Grand Slam gold in Abu Dhabi

Portuguese judoka Rochele Nunes was already a finalist a few weeks ago in Baku and this time captured the gold medal at the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi. Visibly in good shape, the Portuguese judoka is gaining strength and seems increasingly difficult to beat. We could expect an offensive from Nunes and that is exactly what happened. She rapidly scored a waza-ari and pinned Berlikash for ippon. The gold medal was for Nunes and Portugal.

Having reached the podium on the World Judo Tour several times this year, Xin Su (CHN) had hopes of collecting new points and climbing to the top of the podium. Unfortunately for her, she quickly became disillusioned, as she was eliminated by Erica Simonetti, ranked 50th in the world; a real surprise. The Italian continued her progression and reached the semi-final where she faced Kamila Berlikash (KAZ). It was too much for her and she bowed out, letting the Kazakh pass ahead of her.

During the first contest for a bronze medal, Larisa Ceric (BIH) and Elis Startseva (AIN) faced off, the experience against the youth. Today it was the youth that won with Elis Startseva applying a perfectly timed yoko-guruma for ippon.

Lea Fontaine (FRA), looking for valuable points in a category which in France is largely dominated by Romane Dicko, wanted to do well. She had to settle for a possible bronze medal only, but for this Erica Simonetti (ITA) still stood in the way. The difference in size between the two judoka didn't stop Simonetti from trying, she really did, but in the end Lea Fontaine applied a beautiful sumi-gaeshi that took Simonetti over and the French athlete concluded with an immobilisation for ippon. It was bronze for Fontaine.