Eric Takabatake Gets to the Octaves of Final, but Brazil Gets no Medal in the First Day of the World Judo Championship 2014

The Olympic champion Sarah Menezes and Felipe Kitadai are taken by surprise in the first fight. On Tuesday, Brazil will be represented by Erika Miranda and Charles Chibana.

The first day was a difficult one. The three judokas who represented Brazil today in the first day of the 2014 Chelyabinsk World Judo Championship could not reach the contention for medals. The one who reached the furthest round was the young Eric Takabatake who won two fights and he was defeated in the octaves of final against one of the favorites for the title, the Russian Beslan Mudranov, world number four. The Olympic champion Sarah Menezes and the bronze medalist in London 2012 Felipe Kitadai were taken by surprise in the first fight by Amandine Buchard (FRA) and Diyorbek Urozboev (UZB).

Felipe Kitadai (60kg) was the first to get on the mat. And in the first few seconds of the fight he suffered a yuko. From there, Urozboev from Uzbekistan adopted a more defensive strategy while the Brazilian was trying to apply him a blow. But when he was fighting better than his opponent, Kitadai suffered an ippon.

"I am very frustrated because I prepared myself a lot. I guess I’ve never trained so much. I could not stop to spot where I’ve done wrong but I still believe it was my opponent’s merit than my mistake, “Kitadai said.”Failure is good because it gives you a chance to improve, it shows you where you’ve done wrong in a painful way and that's what happened to me," concluded the bronze medalist from London who had defeated the same opponent last month in Tyumen Grand Slam.

Sarah Menezes had a tough task against the revelation of the French judo, Amandine Buchard, only 19 years old. As it happened to Kitadai, the athlete from France got a yuko right in the beginning of the fight, which made the Brazilian’s life more complicated. Sarah still managed to force two punishments for Buchard but her fight stopped there.

"I tried to give my best. After her score, I’ve been trying to apply a blow, but I did not have enough time. So, the way I fought, I'm not that upset about this defeat, "Sarah said. "I dit not reach my goal which was to be a world champion for the first time but I will still be training for 2016."

While Sarah was fighting against Buchard, Eric Takabatake was facing the Ukrainian Hervorh Hevorhyan in his second fight in World Judo Championship. He had already defeated the Swiss Ludovic Chammartin with a beautiful ippon in the beginning of the fight. In the second confrontation, a fight dragged with no score for either side. In the end, the Brazilian won because Hevorhyan was disqualified due to his four penalties. The victory gave the chance to the 23-year-old Brazilian judoka get to the octaves of finals against the Russian Beslan Mudranov, the current fourth placed in the world rankings. Fighting in a venue against the home athlete, Takabatake ended up suffering an ippon in the first minute of combat. However, he considers his participation as a positive one.

"Of course I wanted to go further and I am little bit frustrated because now I am out of the championship. In a tournament with so many people, I won twice and I could not come back in the repechage. " Takabatake said. "But what does not kill, strengthens. This experience in my first World Championship is very good. Now I know how things are going and I must train more for the next year’s World Judo Champioship. "he concluded.

In the men’s, the gold went to Boldbaatar Ganbat from Mongolia, the silver  to Beslan Mudranov (RUS) and the bronze awards to Naohisa Takato (JPN) and Amiran Papnashvili (GEO). In the women’s, Ami Kondo (JPN) was the champion, the Argentinian Paula Pareto won the silver medal whereas Celia Maria Laborde (CUB) and Amandine Buchard (FRA) the bronze ones. On Tuesday, Erika Miranda, the last year’s vice-champion, and Charles Chibana, the current leader of the world rankings in the half-lightweight category will represent Brazil in Chelyabinsk 2014 World Judo Championship.