It wasn’t the fairytale ending she was after, but Distria KRASNIQI (KOS) definitely feels one step closer. As almost all celebrated ABE Uta’s early exit in the Olympic Games, it was a bitter disappointment for Krasniqi who had spent a great deal of time and effort to prepare for the Tokyo Olympic Champion. Today, she managed to scratch that itch and faced one of her top rivals in the World Championships -52kg final.
It was hard because I prepared for three years for that fight, and now I did some things that I had been planning and it was going good up to the final minute, I am not happy that I lost but I’m still happy that I did so well for myself.
Krasniqi won the Olympic title at -48kg the day before Abe took her title in -52kg, and now Krasniqi feels like a new athlete,
Now I’m doing different judo that I did in -48kg, and every time I’m trying to learn new things, changing some things in each competition, you have to, you can’t fight the same. Maybe it doesn’t look that way when you’re watching the fight but I change small details that are hard to see.
It is certainly no easy feat to rise up in a new category but Krasniqi has done so seamlessly and at pace! In Paris, she became Olympic finalist yet again to claim the silver medal. Now she is after one thing. Gold.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen