Lee Hyeonji shows no mercy in junior heavyweight final in Dushanbe

At the fourth and last day of the individual tournament The Kasri tennis Arena in Tajikistan saw once a again some big surprise at these junior world championships. In the final for women +78 French Celia Cancan was the favourite as she is twice a world medallist at cadets and is the current junior European champion. She sits at the top of the draw sheet in Dushanbe and at the beginning of day 4 in the Kasri Tennis Arena, her aim was to defend her position and confirm her ranking.

Hyeonji Lee showed no mercy in the final. She took the heavyweight title away from Celia Cancan in just 26 seconds, a throw and a hold combining to send the gold to Korea. It is Korea’s first gold medal in Tajikistan among these juniors.

The first bronze medal contest lasted just 12 seconds! Yamaguchi gripped, attacked and completed her uchi-mata without giving Oliveira a chance to breathe. It was impressive, a much-needed medal for Japan on a challenging day for their team.

An early seoi-otoshi from Safa Soliman (EGY) made life difficult for Liu (CHN) and no matter how much she chased, the Chinese athlete couldn’t find an entry. With a minute to go in this second bronze medal contest, Soliman added fuel to her engine and attacked in ne-waza, turning her opponent and holding her for the ten seconds needed. Safa Soliman and her coach Hiroshi Izumi, Olympic silver medallist and world champion, can be happy with their work. They have a medal for Egypt and for Africa.

Cancan had a bye, a tactical win against Hyebin Lee (KOR) and a huge soto-makikomi against Stasiulyte (LTU) put Cancan in the semi-final of the heavyweight women’s category to meet an unlikely adversary.

In pool B, Enya Pires of Brazil should have been the leader but she became a casualty at the hands of a very impressive Egyptian. Safa Soliman (EGY) looked to be down and out in the first 8 seconds of her competition after Xinran Niu (CHN) threw her for waza-ari and held her down but somehow she escaped, twisting on to her front and releasing Niu’s grip. With just over a minute gone, they went to the ground again and Niu was in the middle of a turnover when Soliman countered it and held the Chinese women for ippon with kami-shiho-gatame.

Soliman then threw and held Panamerican junior silver medallist Pires (BRA) to reach a quarter-final against a seemingly insurmountable challenge, that of Yamaguchi (JPN). Yamaguchi won the Graz junior European cup and was therefore no stranger to the international level. However, in a close fight, Yamaguchi used her head while attempting to throw and was disqualified. Soliman was through to the junior world semi-final.

Celia Cancan won the semi-final but not easily, holding the Egyptian judoka. Finally this French junior had made it to the junior world final.

On the other side of the draw, the number two seed, Hyeonji Lee (KOR) stormed through to her semi-final. The 2023 world cadet champion can throw but also has strong contest management skills and can win tactically. She demonstrated her range of skills through the morning session and added ne-waza to her catalogue in the semi-final, holding Olivia Oliveira for ippon inside a minute.

In the end it was Korea to win the gold earning the sixth ever world title for female juniors for her country.