Maria Suelen Altheman Brings One More Gold Medal to Brazil in GS Moscow
Mayra Aguiar leaves GS with silver; Luciano Correa with bronze
Brazil won three more medals this Sunday at the Grand Slam from Moscow: one gold, one silver and one bronze. Thus, the Brazilian team comes out as a great Overall Winner, with ten total medals: three gold, four silver and three bronze; this was the last competition from the international circuit before the World Championship Rio 2013. Maria Suelen Altheman got the gold medal. She won all her fights by ippon. She fought against the Japanese Nodoka Shiraishi, the German Franziska Konitz, and, similarly, in the final against other Japanese athlete, Kanae Yamabe. It is her second title of a consecutive Grand Slam. Counting also her victory in Baku, Maria is now the world number one.
In the category up-to-78kg, Mayra Aguiar conquered again the podium in a major international competition, after recovering from the last year’s injury. Mayra took part in three tough fights against the Ukrainian Maria Turks and the Dutch Marhinde Verkerk, overcoming them and managing to be the leader in the world ranking of her category. In the fight for gold, Mayra faced again the world second best athlete and her main opponent, the Hungarian Abigel Joo. This time, however, after an arduous struggle, Mayra was defeated by a Yuko in the last 16 seconds and finished the competition with a silver medal.
The other medal of the day was Luciano Correa’s who, inspired that day, remembered us that world champion athlete from 2007. He began by applying a Ippon to the Ukrainian Dmytro Luchin; then he faced the head-key of the competition, the Azerbaijani Elkhan Mammadov, and Ippon again, but in the semifinal he was the unlucky one and suffered an Ippon from the Uzbek Ramziddin Sayidov; however, in the fight for the bronze, the Brazilian controlled and applied four Shidos to the Kazakh Maxim Rakov, performing so the Hansoku Make.
\"This medal is very special! Winning again a medal in a Grand Slam is very good, especially in the beginning of the cycle, showing that the work is being well done,\" said Luciano.
The other Brazilians who fought this Sunday did not reach the Final Block. Mauro Moura (81kg) was defeated in his first fight against the Czech Jaromir Jezek, by Ippon, Maria Portela (70kg) was applied Ippon by the Japanese Yuka Osumi; another Brazilian in the category up-to-70kg, Barbara Timo, got a victory against the Israeli Lior Wildikan thanks to a Yuko, but she was defeated by the German Lauras Vargas Koch, by Ippon; when she was winning in the repechage by Yuko, Barbara was defeated by the British Sally Conway by Ippon ; Eduardo Silva (90kg) began with a victory over the Kyrgyzstan Chingiz Mamedov, thanks to his Yuko, but the next fight he was eventually defeated by the Georgian Zviad Gogotchuri; in the category up-to-100kg, Renan Nunes fell by ippon in his first fight when he faced the German Dimitri Peters; Rochele Nunes (+78 kg) debuted in the second round, but she was eventually defeated by Ippon by the Japanese finalis, Kanae Yamabe, and in the repechage, she was defeated again by an Ippon applied by the British Sarah Adlington; among the male athletes from the heavyweight category, Rafael Silva began with an Ippon, winning over the Tajik Abubakr Rakhmanov, but he lost the next two matches against the Georgian Levani Matiashvili and the Tunisian Faicel Jaballah, both by Ippo; David Moura was defeated right from the beginning by the German Robert Zimmerman, by Ippon.
The next stop is Rio de Janeiro: the World Championship, Individual and Team Competition, taking place from August 26th to September 1st.
