Golden Diyora Keldiyorova defeats the Grand Prix stats

Grand Prix level and Uzbek lightweight Diyora Keldiyorova was never a good marriage. She won just won one Grand medal (silver), in her own Tashkent in 2016. Today in Portugal that Grand Prix barrier disappeared with a gold medal for the Uzbek who dominated the category U52kg in her tenth Grand Prix appearance after her silver debut in 2016, it was finally a gold medal for Keldiyorova.

Although her victory was not a surprise, the statistics tell a different story. Based upon her reputation  and her position in the world ranking, world number three, Keldiyorova became the number one seed in Portugal after her brilliant silver medallist at the 2023 Doha World Championships. Today she dealt with that pressure at the beginning of the season.

This favourite position is not always a guarantee of success because the pressure it brings may not be tolerated but this type of metaphysical question does not seem to disturb Marko Spittka’s protégé, who won during the preliminary phases without having to strain her talent, winning all her fights with a positive score.

Her opponent in the final was also a judoka known on the world circuit, since it was the sixth in the world, Reka Pupp (HUN), who asserted her supremacy in her half of the draw. However, things were not that simple for Pupp, who had to redouble her efforts to pass the rounds.

Style and form play a major role in performance, but even if Reka Pupp was not on her best form, she produced the right judo at the right time, and above all she never gave up. It was a good thing for her since she ended up in the final.

If the second bronze medal contest was fast, the final was just slightly longer as it took only 18 seconds for Diyora Keldiyorova to engage her seoi-nage which she immediately followed with an unstoppable armlock for ippon. The precision of Keldiyorova was simply impressive and gave no chance to Pupp; another gold medal for Uzbekistan.

A bronze medallist at the 2019 Asian Games, Yerin Yung (KOR) faced a bronze medallist from the last European Championships, Mascha Ballhaus (GER) for a different bronze medal in Portugal. With her big arm over the head, Mascha Ballhaus put pressure on her opponent and with 1 and a half minutes to go, the Korean judoka was penalised twice already. In the golden score period, Ballhaus' pressure decreased while Yerin Yung was coming back, forcing the German judoka to be penalised twice as well. With two shido apiece, everything was still possible until Mascha Ballhaus scored a liberating waza-ari.

Korea had a second chance for a medal with Seyun Jang (KOR) who faced Glafira Borisova (AIN) for the second bronze medal, but it took only 10 seconds for Borisova to get permission for lift-off as she propelled her opponent up in the sky with a massive pick-up for ippon. The bronze medal was for Glafira Borisova who competes with Alesya Kuznetsova for a place at the Olympics in July.