Asari Masaya captures another junior gold for Japan

Japanese Asari Masaya won Junior World Championships gold with a clinical display in the U66kg final. Prague Junior European Cup bronze medallist Alberto Gaitero Martin of Spain went a yuko behind to a osoto-otoshi and with 33 seconds left in the contest the Japanese fighter executed a neat turnover to lock on the juji-gatame and his opponent had to submit.

In the first semi-final Japan Cadet Championships silver medallist Asari saw off a spirited two-time Cadet European Championships winner Hidayet Heydarov of Azerbaijan in golden score. After a stalemate at the end of regular time, the Japanese fighter found another gear when he needed it the most as he caught the Azerbaijan fighter with ashi-waza for a yuko. In the second semi-final Gaitero Martin defeated Junior Asian Championships bronze medallist Mehdi Fathipoorardal (IRI) by a yuko from a sumi-gaeshi. Both judoka were penalised for passivity after 30 seconds and the contest was even except for the decisive attack from the young Spaniard.

The first bronze medal was won by 17-year-old Leibnitz Junior European Cup silver medallist Daniel Cargnin (BRA) who registered a full house of scores to defeat Fathipoorardal. Cargnin took the lead with a yuko and then added a waza-ari as he worked his way up to ippon which came from a superb piece of ashi-waza. The second bronze medal was clinched by Heydarov who put his semi-final disappointment behind him to submit Junior Pan American Championships bronze medallist Juan Tello (COL) with shime-waza with 61 seconds remaining having led by a yuko.