Funa Tonaki brings the U48kg gold back to Japan

At the Grand Prix of Qingdao Japanese World Junior Champion Funa Tonaki became the successor of Monica Ungureanu U48 who won the event last year.

The top seeded athlete of the category, Munkhbat Urantsetseg (MGL) who was the favourite of the competition, was beaten by a Japanese newcomer to the IJF World Judo Tour.

In fact, Munkhbat’s way to the final was not straight forward and she had to show her best judo to surpass Dayaris Mestre Alvarez (CUB), Jon Yu Sun (PRK) and Jeong Bo Kyeong (KOR), who she defeated only during the golden score in their semi-final. In the second part of the draw, Tonaki Funa (JPN), who was not among the top seeded athletes, but who is the current junior world champion (Abu Dhabi 2015), showed that even as a newcomer, she is already one of the most exciting judoka in the category. The young athlete confirmed her new position as she was able to score a waza-ari, with a ko-soto-gari. She doubled the score with a ko-uchi-gari, almost in the last second, to win her first medal on the senior international circuit.

The first bronze medal fight opposed Ebru Sahin (TUR) and Nataliya Kondratyeva (RUS). After two minutes, the Turkish athlete, winner of the Baku Grand Slam this year, was leading with a comfortable advantage of three penalties, although knowing that a single score from Kondratyeva could give the victory to the Russian. But SAHIN controlled her opponent until the last second to add one more line to her prize list.

In the second bronze medal contest, Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh (KAZ) faced Jeong Bo Kyeong (KOR). The Kazakh was the first to score with a superb counter attack for waza-ari and despite one penalty for passivity, she could secure the victory to step onto the podium.

The first Grand Prix in Dingao in 2009 was won by Japanese Ibe Shoko, finally the gold medal is back to Japan.