Brazil Gets Three Medals on the First Day of the Havana Grand Prix
Erika Miranda (52kg) and Eric Takabatake (60kg) became vice-champions and Sarah Menezes (48kg) won the bronze.
On the first day of the Havana Grand Prix, Brazil won three medals. On Friday, May 6th, female athletes from 48kg-, 52kg- and 57kg- categories, and male 60kg- and 66kg- categories went into action. Erika Miranda (52kg) and Eric Takabatake (60kg) won the silver medal and Sarah Menezes (48kg) the bronze one. But it was not easy for the Brazilians to reach the podium in a competition which gathers 296 athletes, 142 women and 154 men from 40 countries.
Erika took part in four combats. In the first stage she defeated the Israeli Roni Schwartz and the French Priscilla Gneto. In the semifinals, she overcame the German Marreen Kraeh and qualified to the contention for gold against the Cuban Yanet Bermoy. Because of pains in the back, Erika together with the technical committee decided not to fight the decision in order not to make the injury worse and so she took the silver.
Eric Takabatake made an excellent competition. Of the four fights he did, he won two by ippon - against the Argentinian Nehuen Melita and the British Ashley Mckenzie - and one by wazari - against the Mexican Nabor Castillo, in the semifinals. The athlete was only stopped by the Georgian Amiran Papinashvili, second placed in the world rankings, and so he won the silver in the final.
Sarah Menezes won the contention for bronze against Amelie Rossenau and won a place on the podium of the 48kg - category. The athlete had lost the semifinal to the Cuban Dayaris Master Alvarez by only a shido - the Brazilian was punished three times and the Cuban twice. Before the Olympic champion had won two fights, one against the Cuban Lisa Vera and another against the Ecuadorian Diana Cobos.
Gabriela Chibana (48kg), Raquel Silva (52kg) and Diego Santos (66kg) were defeated in their first matches by Maria Celia Laborde (CUB), champion of the category; Amandine Buchard (FRA); and Javier Pena (CUB) respectively, and were out of contention for medals. Brazil had no representatives in the women's lightweight category (57kg) and men’s half lightweight (66kg) one.
This Saturday, June 7th, Brazil competes in the men’s lightweight category (73kg) with Leandro Cunha and Marcelo Contini, in the half middleweight category (81kg) with Victor Penalber, and in the women’s half middleweight (63kg) with Katherine Campos and the middleweight (70kg ) Barbara Timo. And on Sunday, the middleweight (90kg) Tiago Camilo, the half heavyweight (100kg) Renan Nunes and Hugo Pessanha and the heavyweight (+100 kg) Walter Santos will step on the mats.
