Maria Portela Conquers the Gold and Is the Best Athlete of the World Military Championship
Mayra Aguiar, Maria Suelen Altheman, Luciano Corrêa and Walter Santos Get the Silver
The fourth and the last competition day of the Military World Championship held in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, ended with a flourish the great Brazilian performance. Maria Portela was gold–awarded in the 70 kg category after winning the fight against the German judoka Anne Lisewski, which configures the military world championship for the gaucha athlete who was considered the best athlete of the competition.
\"Getting just the award makes me very happy; more than that, I was even considered the best athlete in the competition. That’s fantastic! I\'m incredibly happy; I cannot even express that in words. This tournament was very good for me \", said the best judoka of the World Military Championship, Maria Portela.
Besides Portela, there were four more Brazilian athletes fighting on the last day of the competition. Mayra Aguiar (78kg) wasn’t lucky enough to defeat in the finals the Chinese Olympic champion in Beijing 2008, Xiuli Yang; neither Maria Suelen Altheman (+78 kg) could defeat her Chinese opponent, Li Yang; Luciano Correa (100kg) and Walter Santos (+100 kg) got also the silver. Eduardo Santos would have been the Brazilian representative in the up-to-90kg category, but an injury during the team-competition from Monday, hindered the athlete’s participation.
Thus, Brazil ends its participation in the Kazakh capital with five gold medals, six silvers, and one bronze, plus a gold award and a silver one in the team-competition. The delegation also included the coaches Mário Sabino in the male team and Kiko Pereira responsible for the female one. They are going to come back to Brazil on July 8th.
