Mayra Aguiar Shines in Her First Resuming Competition and in August She Will Be Representing Brazil in the World Judo Championship
The Olympic medalist won the gold in last weekend’s Grand Slam of Tyumen and she will seek her third World medal in the 2014 Chelyabinsk World Judo Championships.
The last weekend was not special just for Brazil, who had its best performance throughout Grand Slam’s history by winning 10 medals- five gold, two silver and three bronze - in the event held in Tyumen / RUS. The Olympic medalist Mayra Aguiar (78kg), who has not been competing since the 2013 World Championship, due to two surgeries, one on her right knee and another on the left elbow, won one of the gold medals, marking her resuming to competition.
The performance of Mayra Aguiar, who came back training three months ago, was amazing. In order to reach the final of one of the year’s most important competitions, the judoka fought in three rounds. In the first one she defeated the Russian Alena Kachorovskaya by wazari. The other two contests, against the Japanese Tomomi Okamura and against the Polish Daria Pogorzelec were won by ippon (perfect blow) and helped her reach the final. In the contention for gold, her opponent, the American Kayla Harrison, gave up the fight due to an injury. Mayra Aguiar did not hide her happiness:
"It’s good to be able to live those moments again! After eight months of surgery, I could not have a better return to competition ", said the athlete on her social networks and added:”The walk was hard and I had very tough days, but it was because of them that I did not give up. Thanks to everyone who made this possible. The fight goes on ".
Mayra Aguiar, third placed in the world rankings of the half heavyweight (78kg) category, is one of the 18 Brazilian athletes who will take part in the World Championships from Chelyabinsk, held between August 25th to 31st in Russia. In the last year's edition, held in Rio de Janeiro, she won the bronze medal. Moreover, Mayra won the silver in Tokyo 2010 and the bronze in Paris 2011, respectively. Now she hopes to get the gold, the only one missing in the collection. After the performance on the Russian mat, she is confident.
"When we come back from an injury it is very difficult to know how we will face the competition on the mat. I still have a lot to work, but this result (gold in the GP from Tyumen) gave me more confidence to compete in the World Championships, “the athlete said.
Mayra Aguiar arrived today in Germany, where she will take part until July 25th, along with 13 other Brazilians, in the last training camp before the acclimatization for the World Championships, which will be in France, from 14th to 20th of August.
