Jessica Pereira Is Silver Awarded at the World Junior Championships
Gabriel Mendes gets the bronze in the lightweight category and Brazil has now three medals
This Wednesday (23/10) was the day when the half lightweight (52kg and 66kg), lightweight (73kg) rose to the mats of the Sports Hall Stozice from Ljubljana, Slovenia. After Vitor Torrente’s medal on the first day of the World Junior Championships, the good expectations were confirmed today by Jessica Pereira and Gabriel Mendes who led Brazil to the podium. The athlete from Rio, who trains at Reação Institute, Rafaela Silva’s club, won four fights on the Slovenian dojo against the South Korean Jeong Jang Ji, the Russian Zarina Babinyan, the Japanese Ai Shishime and the Polish Karolina Pienkowska. Unfortunately, she ended up losing the final to the German Sappho Coban by shido, a tied fight in which each judoka had a yuko. Jessica’s prize in this competition was the silver medal.
\"It was amazing! I was taking part in a World Judo Championship for the first time and I managed to fight to the end, but there unfortunately I made a mistake. It’s a shame I could not get the gold, but it was a fantastic experience to me, “said the silver medalist, Jessica Pereira.
Gabriel Mendes (CR Flamengo / RJ ) had to fight six times before getting to the podium. His campaign began with a victory against the Latvian Dmitrijs Fedosejenkovs and continued winning over the Chilean Tomas Bringas and the Ukrainian Artur Sarkisian. In his fourth fight, Gabriel was defeated by the Canadian Arthur Margelidon; in the repechage, he faced the Polish Damian Stepien before reaching the decisive dispute for a medal against the Russian Imranbek Gabasov. His victory by ippon confirmed the position of the athlete born in Alagoas on the world podium.
The other Brazilians of the day did not reach the competitions for medals. In the 57kg category, Flavia Gomes ( EC Pinheiros / SP ) did not win the first fight against the Japanese Christa Deguchi ; Camila Barreto ( Kiai / RS ) took part in a harsh confrontation against Russia\'s Daria Mezhetskaia but she underwent a yuko and also fell in the first fight. Among the up-to-66kg athletes, Ricardo Santos Júnior ( Minas / MG ) and Gabriel Pinheiro ( Cia Judo Association / PE ) were also early defeated. The judoka from Minas was defeated by the Italian Matteo Piras in the first round, whereas Gabriel Pinheiro won over the Puerto Rican Adrian Gandia in the first fight , but lost against the Greek Georgios Azoidis.
The third day of competition, Friday (25/10), is the day when 63kg, 70kg, 81kg and 90kg - athletes step in. Jessica Santos (63kg) wins the first round and in the second one she faces the Austrian Magdalena Krssakova. Gustavo Assis ( 81kg ) meets first the South Korean Lim Jooyong and Henrique Silva ( 90kg ) stays in \"stand by \" in the first round, waiting for the winner of the dispute between the Slovak Matej Hajas and the American David Gilkarov .
Awarded athlets in the second day of competition:
52kg:
Gold – Sappho Coban / Germany
Silver – Jéssica Pereira / Brazil
Bronze – Odette Giuffrida / Italy; Larisa Florian / Romania
66kg:
Gold – Yuuki Hashiguchi / Japan
Silver – Sho Tateyama / Japan
Bronze – Jeremy Moreira / France; Adrian Gomboc / Slovenia
57kg:
Gold – Arleta Podolak / Poland
Silver – Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard / Canada
Bronze – Christa Deguchi / Japan; Fabienne Kocher / Switzerland
73kg:
Gold – Antonio Esposito / Italy
Silver – Sarvar Shomurodov / Uzbekistan
Bronze – Gabriel Mendes / Brasil; Roman Moustopoulos / Greece
