It was extremely tough on day two in the Mongolian Grand Slam in Ulaanbaatar, and only two European athletes made it in to the finals of -63kg and -70kg; OZBAS Szofi and Lara CVJETKO (CRO).
The latter’s younger sibling, Jana, managed to secure am -63kg silver medal yesterday in the cadet European championships and seems to be following in her sisters footsteps. Today though, Lara was the one to step on the podium. Coming in as the number one seed of the -70kg category, Cvjetko defended her seeding throughout the preliminary rounds, however the final against TANAKA Shiho (JPN) proved problematic and the pair picked up shidos going in to golden score and third penalty was given to Cvjetko after almost two minutes of extra time for a false attack.
Current world bronze medallist, Ozbas, came in to the tournament in sixth seeding position and battled her way through to the final against NABEKURA Name (JPN, defeating Gili SHAHIR (ISR) and Renata ZACHOVA (CZE) in the quarter and semi finals, executing some stunning ashi waza. In the final with Nabekura, it was a superbly timed waza ari that gave the win to the Japanese athlete with yet more well executed ashi waza.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen