By Winning a Bronze Medal, Gustavo Assis Ensures the First Podium of the Brazilian Judo at Universíade 2015
Rafael Macedo (81kg) and Amanda Oliveira (70kg) finished on the fifth place while Jessica Santos (63kg) fell in the second round.
The middleweight (90kg) Gustavo Assis from Pitágoras University (MG) won the first medal of the Brazilian judo at the Universiade Gwangju 2015 on Sunday night, 05th after defeating his Czech counterpart David Klammert by ippon in the decision for the third place and he won the bronze. Rafael Macedo (81kg) and Amanda Oliveira (70kg) were the other Brazilian judokas who reached the contention for bronze, but they were defeated and Jessica Santos fell in the second round. The fights go on on Monday, with the half-lightweight categories (66kg and 52kg) and the lightweight ones (73kg and 57kg).
"I am very happy with the medal, after all, the Universiade is an Olympic experience as well as a wonderful, strong and Olympic Games standard competition. I feel it's another step in the search for a place in the Olympic team, “the Brazilian medalist celebrated.
Gustavo’s path to the bronze had three victorious battles against Azamat Bektursunov (KGZ), Zilvinas Lekavicius (LTU) and Davronbek Sattorov (UZB). In the semifinal against Khusen Khalmurzaev (RUS) the fight was tied with a waza-ari for each athlete, but then the Brazilian got one more punishment (3-2) against the Russian and so he went to fight for the bronze and he managed to get the award.
"I started very confident the fight for medals in which I could show my best judo, with many movements and much flexibility. In a fall of counter-coup I managed to score an ippon and end the fighting, “Gustavo said.
Brazil had two more chances to win medals, with Rafael Macedo (81kg) and Amanda Oliveira (70kg) who also reached the decision for the third place. Macedo, the current world junior champion, was defeated by the Russian Khasan Khalmurzaev, champion of Grand Slam Baku 2015, in the semifinal and faced another challenge in the bronze decision: the Japanese Kenya Kohara. The Brazilian finished on fifth. Amanda had the same outcome. She lost to the Southern Korean Seongyeon Kim in the semi-finals and Zhanar Kashkyn (KAZ) in the bronze contention. Jessica Santos (63kg), however, did not reach the fight for medal, due to her defeat by Wen Zhang (CHN) in the second round.
On Monday, it will be the turn of the 66kg and 73kg men’s categories and the women’s 52kg and 57kg fighting in the competition in Gwangju. The fights start from 9 pm (on Sunday) and the finals will be on Monday morning. The judokas Marcelo Fuzita (66kg), Igor Pereira (73kg), Eleudis Valentim (52kg) and Flavia Gomes (57kg) will be the Brazilian representatives in the competition.
