Sisi Ma seals gold in Abu Dhabi

Chinese judoka Ma Sisi improved on her Tashkent Grand Prix silver medal from her last outing by defeating Zagreb Grand Prix silver medallist Tessie Savelkouls of the Netherlands to win heavyweight gold. Savelkouls was penalised for a false attack and received a second shido while her opponent Tyumen Grand Slam winner Ma, who continues to outshine world champion and teammate Yu Song, was penalised once for passivity.

In the first semi-final Ma profited from the inaction of Marine Erb of France who was penalised on four occasions for her inferior work ethic to revert to the repechage. In the second semi-final YU was humbled by Tessie Savelkouls on shido penalties 1:2 as the former is yet to reproduce the form which saw her win gold in Astana.

The first bronze medal was won by Paris Grand Slam winner Emilie Andeol (FRA) who has leaped up the world ranking list after two Grand Slam medals in as many weeks. In an all-French clash Andeol defeated Erb on shido penalties with three against the later and one against the vastly-experienced Andeol. Erb, 21, was penalised for going out after 90 seconds and then for passivity before both judoka were reprimanded for passivity with 46 seconds remaining. The second bronze medal was won by Yu who scored a waza-ari with a ko-soto-gake with a minute left and then held down Jasmin Kuelbs (GER) with a mune-gatame for 15 seconds and her second waza-ari score.