Munkhbat continues Mongolian victories in Paris

Urantsetseg Munkhbat of Mongolia was with Tina Trstenjak of Slovenia the only World Ranking leader who won this edition of the Grand Slam in Paris. In the new AccorHotel Arena she defeated Charline van Snick of Belgium. The 2013 world champion, Munkhbat Urantsetseg was penalised for passivity after one minute and 45 seconds giving a small advantage to Belgium’s Olympic bronze medallist Charline Van Snick, but a few seconds later, Munkhbat engaged a right handed ippon-seoi-nage for yuko. A run against the clock started for Van Snick but the very experienced Mongolian could control the fight until the very last seconds to secure a third Grand Slam gold medal, enough also to reinforce her first place on the world ranking list.

The first semi-final saw Munkhbat hold down Tbilisi Grand Prix winner Maryna Cherniak (UKR) for 17 seconds and the Ukranian submitted while in the second semi-final former Asian Championships runner-up Xie Shishi (CHN) fell to Van Snick by ippon.

The first bronze medal fight opposed the winner of the Tyumen Grand Slam this year, Julia Figueroa (ESP), and Xie, whose best result this year was a seventh place also in Tyumen. Half way through the contest, Figueroa scored a first waza-ari to take a strong lead and despite the two penalties that she also received the Spanish fighter could maintain her advantage. The second bronze medal was won by Jeju Grand Prix silver medallist Shira Rishony (ISR) who prevailed in a tight contest against beaten semi-finalist Cherniak. With both judoka struggling to break the deadlock the decisive moment came with two minutes left as the Ukrainian received a shido for passivity.

Despite the strong women’s generation in Mongolia, Urantsetseg Munkhbat is the only the second female Mongolian to win in Paris. Bundmaa Munkhbaatar won her category U52kg in 2011 as first ever winner for her country. Urantsetseg Munkhbat broke through the Japanese resistance, after 6 Japanese back-to-back victories the tiny Mongolian won the category U48kg.