Larissa Farias Is Silver-Awarded in the 44kg-Category at the World Junior Championships
The athlete from South Mato Grosso wins three fights but cannot resist the Japanese Sakiguchi. On Thursday (22nd), there will be six Brazilians fighting in Miami.
Brazil started well the World Junior Championship, Miami 2014.On the first day of competition, the 44 kg- athlete Larissa Farias won a silver medal and assured her position on the podium. Over the past five World Junior Championships, Brazil got in at least one final. Since the World Junior Championships held in 1990 in Dijon, France, the Brazilian athletes have been keeping on the podium.
"This medal was a dream coming true. I’m happy, but not completely satisfied. I'll go for a golden one! This is only the beginning and I'm ready for the next challenge," Larissa said.
The athlete from South Mato Grosso won three matches in the competition before reaching the contention for gold at Broward Convention Center. In the first fight, Larissa, second placed in the world junior ranking, gave no chance to the Spanish Laura Martinez Abelenda. She threw her opponent twice by yuko and ended the fight with an ippon.
In the quarter-finals, she had a quarry ahead: the Mongol Narantsetseg Ganbaatar, much taller than her. But the little Larissa was undeterred and managed to project her rival by yuko early in the fight. She spent much of her time dominating the fight, but in the last minute, she was also given a yuko and the fight went to golden score. Even tired, the athlete from South Mato Grosso could impose herself and the Mongol ended up being punished, giving the victory to Larissa.
The semifinal was played against the Tunisian Olfa Saoudi, the world number eight, who had no chance. In the first minute of fight she was projected by yuko. A few seconds later, Larissa got her rival’s immobilization until the ippon and so she secured a place in the final against the Japanese Hitomi Sakaguchi.
In the big decision, Larissa could not impose her judo against a very fast opponent. In the middle of the fight, she was projected by yuko. Then she started to be more active to get a score and balance the confrontation and that was when the Japanese seized the chance and, at the end of the fight, she immobilized the Brazilian by ippon.
The other Brazilians could not reach the final block. Luiz Claudio Lima Junior (55kg) was the 1st Brazilian to fight in World Junior Championship, but in a tough fight, he lost to Jaehyeon Kim (KOR) due to a difference in penalties.
The extra-lightweight Tawany Silva made her fight against the favorite for the title, Ami Kondo (JPN), the current senior world champion, and was defeated by ippon. Vitor Carvalho (60kg) made a balanced fight against Tsogtbaatar Tsendochir but was defeated by yuko.
The categories who will fight on Thursday, October 22nd, are the light and half-lightweight and the competing Brazilians are: Ricardo Santos Junior (66kg / MG), Gabriel Pinheiro (66kg / PE), Lincoln Neves (73kg / SP), Jessica Pereira (52kg / RJ), Tamires Crude Silva (57kg / RJ) and Flávia Gomes (57kg / SP).
