Golden girl Szabina Gercsak is unstoppable

Hungary’s Golden girl Szabina Gercsak added another World title. There’s no limit on the ambitions of the Hungarian hope. Gercsak had already a Cadet World title on her list of honour (2013) and she won the Youth Olympic title in 2014. This year she prolonged her European title and at 25 October she won her most important title in Abu Dhabi.

Former cadet world champion and 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games winner Szabina Gercsak won her latest major honour in Abu Dhabi as she defeated Japanese Aoyagi Remi on a single shido after a scoreless four minutes in the -70kg final. Gercsak, already a long-time member of Hungary’s senior national team, fought at the senior World Championships in August and bowed to all four corners of the venue after being awarded the contest.

In the first semi-final German winner Lisa Dollinger was beaten by Gercsak. The 19-year-old former Samsun Grand Prix bronze medallist is already first choice for the senior Hungarian team and was trailing going into the last 10 seconds before the German was penalised with a shido to restore level terms. With three seconds to go, Gercsak threw with a drop seoi-nage for a yuko score. In the second semi-final 18-year-old Aoyagi Remi outfought Dutch Championships bronze medallist Natascha Ausma to book a place in the U70kg final. The Dutch judoka received three shido penalties and never threatened her Japanese opponent who was calculated and composed on the world stage.

The first bronze medal was won by Ausma who twice breached the defence of Dusseldorf Grand Prix bronze medallist Sanne van Dijke with yuko scores. Notably coaches were in the chair for both Dutch judoka and Ausma maintained her advantage for a place on the podium. The second bronze medal was won by Belgrade European Cup winner Dollinger who defeated teammate and former Cadet European champion and European Youth Olympic Festival winner Giovanna Scoccimarro, another strong German. Young Dollinger was sharper in ne-waza and engineered a match-winning opportunity as she trapped her opponent with a kesa-gatame hold for 20 seconds and bronze.

Hungary celebrates another World Junior Champion, last year Krisztian Toth was the first man to take the title and in 2009 Hedvig Karakas won the world title in Paris. Brigitta Szabo (2002) and Anett Meszaros (2004) opened the successful medal road at World Junior Championships.