Mayra Aguiar Takes the Lead of the World Ranking in the Half-Heavyweight Category

The Brazilians Charles Chibana (66kg) and Rafael Silva (+ 100kg) are leaders of their categories as well

Brazil has again three athletes who lead the world rankings in their categories. After the Grand Prix of Qingdao, China, the world champion Mayra Aguiar (78kg) moved up one position and she overtook the French Audrey Tcheumeo and she is now in the first place among the half-heavyweight. Charles Chibana (66kg) and Rafael Silva (+ 100kg) remained are still the leaders of their categories.

"The year did not start well because of the surgeries I underwent. I wasn’t able to attend many competitions but two, so it would be hard to go back to the first place this year. I am very happy to be once again leading the world rankings and to have reached my goals in 2014, "said Mayra, who underwent a surgery on her right knee and the left elbow in the beginning of 2014.

After her recovery, the athlete of Sogipa resumed competing in July at the Grand Slam of Tyumen, Russia, in which she won the gold. In August, the 24 year-old Gaucho athlete won the world judo championship held in Chelyabinsk, by overcoming Tcheumeo in the final. Due to her fourth podium in the World Judo Championship, Mayra became the judoka with most medals in the second most important competition of the world calendar. Thanks to her performance, Mayra Aguiar was nominated to the “Athlete of the Year“Award as well as to the newly created "Supporters’ Athlete “by the Olympic Committee of Brazil.

Apart from the three leaders, Brazil has 13 other athletes in the Olympic ranking area (up to 22nd place for men and the 14th for women). In the extra-lightweight category, Felipe Kitadai (60kg) is the eighth placed, Eric Takabatake (60kg) is the 16th and Sarah Menezes (48kg) is the second. In the half-lightweight, Erika Miranda is still in the third place. In the lightweight, Alex Pombo (73kg) is the 18th whereas Marcelo Contini (73kg) is the 22nd in the men categories and Rafaela Silva is the seventh and  Ketleyn Quadros is placed 13^th in the women ones. Victor Penalber (81kg) is the 4th, Tiago Camilo (90kg) is the 14th and Luciano Correa (100kg) is the 15th. Among the heavyweight athletes, besides the leader Rafael Silva, Brazil has David Moura in the eighth place and Maria Suelen Altheman is in the second. In the women half-middleweight and middleweight category, the highest-ranked Brazilians are Mariana Silva and Maria Portela, both in 21^st.

The complete world rankings can be seen in the attached file. The calendar of the International Judo Federation has only two more events in 2014: the Grand Prix of Jeju held from November 27^th to November 29^th, in which the Brazilians will not be able to participate; and Tokyo Grand Slam from December 5^th to 7^th . The national calendar has three more events: the International Contest Brazil against Italy organized in Lauro de Freitas (BA) on November 30th; the National Selective of the Junior and Cadet Categories held from December 3^rd to 7^th as well as Rio 2016 Selective- Stage III on December 13th.