Yu Song brings heavyweight gold back to China

Yu Song has become the world champion for women +78kg. The World Ranking leader was able to defeat Megumi Tachimoto in the final. The Japanese was the only medallist who qualified for the final. She defeated Idalys Ortiz in the quarter final. It was Yu Song though who managed to deal with the expectations.

Yu defeated Turkish Zehra Kaya Belkis in her first match. Bosnian Larisa Ceric was put aside and in the quarter final Yu defeated Japanese Kanae Yamabe, which opened the gate to a guaranteed Chinese final as Sisi Ma was her opponent in the semi final.

The final wasn’t the best to watch. Tachimoto was awarded with two penalties against Chinese Yu Song but wasn’t powerful enough to make that right. The smaller Tachimoto couldn’t get close the Chinese who had a longer reach. The number one of the world, becomes the number one on the stage today. China is the seventh country to take a world title in this Astana World Championships. Despite the Ortiz domination for two years, China remains tremendously strong.

Chinese female heavyweight World Champions since 1998 (weight change)

2001      Hua Yuan

2003      Fuming Sun

2005      Wen Tong

2007      Wen Tong

2009      Wen Tong

2011      Wen Tong

2015      Song Yu

The bronze in the heavyweight went to Japan’s 24-year old Kanae Yamabe. The second bronze medal was for the 2013 and 2014 World Champion Idalys Ortiz who defeated Ma Sisi quickly with an oseikomi. Ortiz had beaten Konitz in the semi final but lost to Tachimoto in the quarter final, which may have been the key match of the day besides the medal matches.

Song Yu is world class heavyweight fighter. She won various international event such as Grand Prix Qingdao, Zagreb and Tbilisi. And she won the IJF World Masters in Tyumen in 2013 and 2015 in Rabat.

Megumi Tachimoto reached four World Championships bronze medals in 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2014 and silver today. She won the World Junior Championships in 2008 in Bangkok. Tachimoto won many big events, starting in 2010 in Budapest. She won the Grand Slam Paris 3 times as well as Tokyo GS (3), Moscow (2) and Rio (1),

Kanae Yamabe is Japanese heavyweight who won the Grand Slam in Paris in 2014. She won her first World Cup in Oberwart in 2013 and booked victories at Grand Slams (Paris, Tyumen) and Grand Prix Dusseldorf in 2015. Won silver at FISU 2009 and FISU team gold in 2011. World team bronze with Japan 2014.

Cuban judoka Idalys Ortiz became Olympic Champion in 2012 in London. After that success she became World Champion in 2013 and 2014. She had already won Olympic bronze in 2008 in Beijing. The Cuban heavyweight is coached by Ronaldo Veitia. She won various Pan American Championships and Panam Games and today the bronze in Astana.