Erika Miranda Wins the Gold and Nathália Brigida Gets the Bronze at the Grand Slam of Baku
On Saturday there will be six Brazilians in action in Azerbaijan.
Brazil started very well the Grand Slam of Baku. From the three Brazilian athletes who fought, two of them won medals. Erika Miranda (52kg) defeated the Romanian Andreea Chitu by ippon thanks to a strangulation performed in the decision of the half-lightweight category and thus she took the gold. And the extra-lightweight Nathália Brigida took the bronze after defeating her Spanish counterpart Julia Figueroa by difference of punishments.
Erika Miranda showed us her great talent. After winning the Pan American Championships two weeks ago, she managed to defeat all her opponents in Baku. She overcame Angelica Delgado from the US as well as the Russian Yulia Ryzhova in the first round, both by ippon. In the semifinal, a tough fight against the Finnish Jaana Sundberg which only ended in golden score with a wazari performed by Erika. In the decision, she managed to apply a new ippon on the Romanian Andreea Chitu and so she scored 500 points which will take her higher in the world rankings.
Nathália Brigida started with a victory against the German Sonja Wirth by a difference of punishments and after that, she defeated the Italian Valentina Moscatt by ippon with only 36 seconds of fight. In the semifinals, she was eventually defeated by the Romanian Monica Ungareanu due to a difference of punishments. In the fight for the bronze medal, she pulled herself together and adopting a safe strategy, she dominated the fight against the Spanish Julia Figueroa and made her be punished twice and so she made herself a place on the podium.
"This first medal in Grand Slam was very important in order to make me more confident. I believe I could have reached the final but because of some details I didn’t and now I have to work on them. I focused on each fight and I believe I took advantage of the little opportunities that came out, "Brigida said.
Rafaela Silva (57kg) failed to impose her best judo and was defeated by the Russian Tatiana Kazenyuk in the first fight, staying away from the competition by medals. The athletes who will fight on Saturday, May 9th, are Mariana Silva (63kg), Ketleyn Quadros (63kg), Maria Portela (70kg), Barbara Timo (70kg), Marcelo Contini (73kg) and Leandro Guilheiro (81kg). On Sunday it's the turn of Rafael Buzacarini (100kg), Samantha Soares (78kg) and Rochelle Nunes (+ 78kg). The team is mostly made up of women because the boys are taking part in a training camp in Japan until August 14th.
Last year, there were no Brazilian representatives in Baku. In 2013, there were two gold medals won by Walter Santos (+ 100kg) and Maria Suelen Altheman (+ 78kg), a silver one by David Moura (+ 100kg) and a bronze awarded to Marcelo Contini (73kg). The first block starts at 2 am and ends at 9. SporTV 3 and Esporte Interativo broadcast the competition.
