Luciano Correa and Samanta Soares Reach the Seventh Place in Dusseldorf
There were six Brazilian representatives from five different categories stepping on the mat on Sunday, the last day of the competition held in Germany.
On the last day of the Grand Prix of Dusseldorf, Brazil was represented by six judokas from five categories. Best placed of the day, Luciano Correa (100kg) and Samanta Soares (78kg) performedwell, but fell in the repechage against Henk Grol (NED) and Daria Pogorzelec (POL) and finished the competition in seventh place.
Samanta started well, beating Marta Merino (ESP) and Assunta Galeone (ITA). In the quarter-finals, she had a tough fight against the Slovenian Anamari Valensek, who would be later the finalist of the category together with Kayla Harrison (USA). With a difference of only one Shido (2 x 1), the Brazilian was overcome by Valensek and reached the repechage against Pogorzelec Daria (POL). In a balanced confrontation, the Polish managed a Waza-ari and made Samanta stay away from the contention for the bronze.
Luciano, last year’s GP champion, was also doing well, with consistent victories against the Hungarian Miklos Cirjenics (HUN) and the American John Jayne (by ippon), and even a spectacular one against the world champion Elkhan Mammadov (AZJ) - Luciano almost lost the fight by waza-ari, but got the win making Mammadov suffer four punishments. In the quarter-finals, the Brazilian got a waza-ari against the South Korean Guham Cho, but the opponent scored a waza-ari and a yuko reaching this way the semifinal. In the repechage, an old acquaintance of Luciano, the Dutch Henk Grol, who had been punished earlier with a Shido. In an attempt of a blow, the Brazilian felt his right arm, did not give up, but suffered an ippon from opponent and finished the competition in seventh place.
"It was not the result I expected, but the competition has been very tough. And it was good to see what I have to improve for the next steps", said the world champion of 2007. "Now I have to focus on next week’s competition from Poland,” he stated, referring to the Open of Warsaw.
Four other Brazilians entered the mat on Sunday but failed to reach the competition for the podium. The heavyweight Rochelle Nunes and Walter Santos fell on their early struggles against Jiyoun Kim (KOR) and Bilal Zouani (ALG), respectively. Rafael Buzacarini (100kg) tried to stand against Aleksandre Zaalishvili (GEO), but he lost by three Shidos against one of the Georgian. Eduardo Bettoni (90kg) had a good start, with ippons against Mahmoud Snoussi (TUN) and Cheng Xhunzao (CHI) and he even managed to reach the final eighths against Aleksandre Gviniashvili (GEO). Bettoni got a waza-ari, but suffered a perfect stroke from the Georgian.
The National Team ended the competition with two medals: a gold won by Rafaela Silva (57kg) and a bronze awarded to Phelipe Pelim (60kg) in first day of competition. Now, the team will be staying in Germany for an international training camp until the day 26/02 and then the men go to the Open of Warsaw, Poland, while women - with the exception of Sarah Menezes, Rafaela Silva and Erica Miranda - head for the Open of Prague, Czech Republic.
