Yuka Nishida shows her best to Japanese competition for Rio

The final of the women’s U52kg category at the Grand Prix QIngdao opposed Gulbadam Babamuratova of Turkmenistan, the winner of the 2015 edition of the Tashkent Grand Prix, and Japanese Nishida Yuka, winner of the 2012 Paris Grand Slam. Coming back to her top level, Nishida Yuka didn’t offer any chance for Babamuratova to win the gold, and she folded her in the tatami, with a superb drop-morote-seoi-nage for ippon.

Top seeded athlete and winner of the 2015 Asian Championships, Ma Yingnan (CHN), despite competing in front of home public, couldn’t reach the semi-final as she was defeated by the Swiss judoka Evelyne Tschopp during the preliminary rounds. Nevertheless she qualified for the bronze medal fight where she was opposed to Gili Cohen (ISR), winner of the Tbilisi Grand Prix earlier this year. Until a few seconds before the end of the bout, only one penalty was differentiating the two athletes, Cohen having been penalised earlier during the fight. A last-gasp ko-uchi-makikomi from Ma secured her victory and a medal.

The second bronze medal fight saw Adiyasambuu Tsolmon (MGL) and Evelyne Tschopp (SUI), fighting for a place on the podium. Two minutes of observation were necessary for Adiyasambuu to score a first waza-ari with an action-reaction technique (tani-otoshi), that she immediately followed with an immobilisation but for no score. The Mongol athlete scored a second waza-ari with a kata-guruma to step onto the podium.

Last two years Natalia Kuziutina won the Grand Prix in 2013 and 2014 in this category. Nishida won the Chinese Open in Qingdao in 2005, a decade of victories. Last year she finished with silver. This is a montivating gold medal although for the Olympic qualification she has to deal with Misato Nakamura at the Japanese Olympic trials next year.