Gabriel Souza and Sibilla Faccholli Reach the Seventh Place on the First Day of Universiade Gwangju 2015

Juscelino Nascimento (+ 100kg) and Talita Morais (78kg) lost the first fight. Rafael Macedo (81kg), Gustavo Assis (90kg), Jessica Santos (63kg) and Amanda Oliveira (70kg) will fight on Sunday.

There were four Brazilian representatives fighting on the first day of judo competitions at the Universiade Gwangju 2015 from South Korea. The light heavyweight Gabriel Souza (100kg) was the closest judoka to win a medal, but he was eliminated in the second fight of the repechage, as well as the heavyweight (+ 78kg) Sibilla Faccholli. Juscelino Nascimento (+ 100kg) and Talita Morais (78kg) also went to the mat, but lost in the first fight. There will be other four Brazilians fighting on Sunday.

With an ippon against the American La Smith, Gabriel Souza reached the quarterfinals, in which he was defeated by the Japanese Ryutaro Goto after taking two penalties. The Brazilian recovered in the first fight of repechage with another ippon, this time against the Mongolian Lkhagva-Ochir Begz. In the fight that would lead him to the bronze contention, the half-heavyweight did not manage to overcome the German Dino Pfeiffer who, with two waza-aris , stayed in the competition.

Regarding the women’s categories, the heavyweight Sibilla Faccholli overcame Pei-yu Sun (TPE) in the first round, but was defeated by the Chinese Kang Jie in the quarter-finals. In repechage, Sibilla was defeated by the ippon applied by the Lithuanian athlete, Santa Pakenite.

Two other Brazilians who fought on Saturday did not get to a positive outcome. Juscelino Nascimento (+ 100kg) was defeated by the ippon of Juhan Mettis, Estonia, while Talita Morais was overcome by the Algerian Amina Temmar.

On Sunday, there will be four more Brazilians who will step on the mat in search of the first Brazilian medal in the competition: Rafael Macedo (81kg), Gustavo Assis (90kg), Jessica Santos (63kg) and Amanda Oliveira (70kg).