Thriller final U57kg between Marica Perisic and Julie Beurskens

The final for women U57kg in Linz between Serbia’s Marica Perisic and Dutch rookie Julie Beurskens was spectacular. Even among the best judoka of all time, it is rare to witness such a high energy final. From throw to throw to armlock and back again, both fighters gave it absolutely everything in pursuit of the victory. Beurskens was in the lead by action, marginally, for most of the contest but neither athlete was safe from the ingenuity of the other. There were sumi-gaeshi, juj-gatami, uchi-mata, o-uchi-gari attempts and more.

After almost 4 minutes of golden score and virtually nothing between them, the Dutchwoman went for another o-uchi-gari but was too far away and that gave Perisic the space to counter and she did so well, scoring an immediate waza-ari. It was an excellent final and a fantastic way to end day one in Upper Austria.

Kaja Kajzer (SLO) was tasked with taking on the Finnish fighter for the first bronze medal where her strength and experience left no doubt. Kajzer won by ippon leaving Salonen in an honourable 5th place. We have a feeling she will be back soon though, on a higher step.

The home of the second bronze medal was disputed by Mina Libeer (BEL) and Kanna Setoguchi (JPN). Right-handed Setaguchi really struggled against the Belgian who showed great control throughout. After almost two minutes, Libeer  almost scored with a very tight kata-guruma and a little later almost scored with a well transitioned shime-waza. With only 8 seconds on the clock though, having looked dominant throughout, she scored waza-ari with a yoko-sutemi-waza and took an excellent bronze medal.

In fact Perisic did on Friday what she was supposed to do as top seed, albeit not so clear cut as all that. She beat her first opponent in penalties before finishing Devictor (FRA) by two waza-ari scores, the second with a relaxed seoi-otoshi. Yildiz (TUR) then took her to full time, only a waza separating them at full time.

The semi-final could have been tougher but Kanna Setoguchi (JPN) couldn’t handle the extreme cross gripping of the Serbian and was thrown with a ko-uchi-makikomi and held directly. So the number one seed obeyed her ranking up to the doors of the final block.

Jessica Lima was not so sharp, however, falling to teenager Julie Beurskens (NED), the same Beurskens who threw Olympic silver medallist Cysique (FRA) only a few weeks ago in Baku. Also in Baku, Lima met Beurskens for the first time and lost to her then just as she did today in Linz. The Dutchwoman doesn’t yet have an overwhelming list of medals but we must stress, ‘yet!’

The Dutch youngster then went on to beat Libeer (BEL) in the quarter-final before throwing Kajzer with a seoi-otoshi in the first minute of their semi-final, holding the scoreline positively and expertly until the time ran out.

The next surprise, for the uninitiated, was the trajectory of Pihla Salonen (FIN), just 21 and with a junior European silver medal in her kit bag from last year but no reference at all on the World Judo Tour. She’s tenacious and hard-working and is threatening all the time, to come forward and establish herself on the senior circuit. In Linz she threw 4th seed Nairne (GBR) in golden score having not looked at risk at all in the contest. A loss to Setoguchi then dropped her into the repechage where she won to place herself neatly into her first World Judo Tour final block.