Newby Kurena Ikeda shows quality at Grand Slam level

With only one known international result, a first place at the Malaga Junior European Cup 2022, Kurena Ikeda (JPN) was not an obvious favourite but, pushed by the public and by the results of her teammates over the last two days, Ikeda qualified for her first grand slam final.

In the final, she found the South Korean judoka, Minju Kim, junior world champion in 2023 in Odivelas, Portugal, in her way. At the end of normal time, there was nothing written on the scoreboard but a shido apiece. At the beginning of golden score, another penalty was given to each judoka. No more mistake allowed. After having been dangerous on the floor a few times, Kurena Ikeda managed to turn her opponent and pin her down for ippon. From a medal in a junior European cup to winning a grand slam there was a gap and Ikeda filled it with a big smile at the end of the final. 
Patricia Sampaio had come to Tokyo with the firm intention of climbing to the top step of the podium. As the top seed, she obviously had a good chance of getting there but beaten in the quarter-finals, she had to accept the chance of a bronze medal against Shori Hamada (JPN) instead. The Japanese judoka is far from being an unknown, as she was the 2018 world champion and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion, a real reference on the international circuit. It was an intense contest. With a few seconds left on the clock, Sampaio produced her effort and sent Hamada to the ground with a huge ko-soto-gari for a clear ippon.
For the second bronze medal, Mami Umeki (JPN) and Mizuki Sugimura (JPN) took to the tatami of the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. While Sampaio was scoring ippon on the other tatami, Umeki had to wait until golden score to engage with a massive o-soto-gari for ippon.