Chinese Ma Yingnan books a triple victory and raises the expectations

It’s actually good news for judo and good news for the inner circle ladies who usually pick up the gold medals U52kg. Chinese MA Yingnan is doing the European Tour and is highly successful taking three gold medals in three events. The Chinese twister dances around her opponents and took the triple in Prague at the European Open.

Her future rivals see her performances with interest: Majlinda Kelmendi, Andreea Chitu, Erika Miranda, Natalia Kuzyutina. They form the top 4 in the IJF World Ranking. MA is now entering the top 10 of the top flights U52kg. A top that is not so broad. Kelmendi is leading stable and is the judoka with most points of all judoka on the globe. She can need some competition.

But MA is not a youngster anymore with her 30 years. Typical for this weight category, Annabelle Euranie (32) ranked 9th and Mareen Kraeh (31) ranked 5th are also over 30, where Kelmendi has the future with her 23 years.

Ma recently beat Japanese Nakamura, Nishida, Hashimoto and Cohen (ISR) and Chitu (ROU) even twice. At the World Championships in 2014 she defeated Mareen Kraeh and has beaten Erika Miranda and Urantsetseg Munkhbat before. Although she can lose from the same opponents as well, she still develops well and we are looking forward to a confrontation with Kelmendi or Kuzyutina again, who beat her in Chelyabinsk last year, but Ma is better now than last year.

A good performance for China would fit in the historical results of the Olympic Games. China has won a gold medal twice in this category U52kg in 2004 and 2008 by XIAN Dongmei who was 32 herself in 2008 when she Kum Ae An (DPR) in the Beijing Olympic final. Make your conclusions. Anything is possible.

Another Chinese wall is settled.