Rochele Nunes Is Gold-Awarded on the First Day of the Universiade

Rafael Buzacarini Wins the Bronze Medal

Judo had the mission of bringing Brazil the first two medals in the Universiade. On the first competition day in Kazan, Russia, the Middle Heavyweight and Heavyweight categories competed. Rochele Nunes, Rafael Buzacarini and David Moura were the Brazilian representatives who entered the mat.

Rochele Nunes had a flawless performance, managing to come to a very tough final fight against the Olympic champion and World Number One, Idalys Ortiz. The Cuban could not stop the Brazilian judoka who won a thrilling fight which, in fact, she was losing because of penalties, but in the final seconds, she applied a yuko on her opponent and won the first Brazilian gold in the university competition.

Rafael Buzacarini reached the semifinals, but there he was defeated by the Russian Zafar Makhmadov who, just like Rafael, is a promising athlete. In the fight for bronze, the Brazilian from São Caetano do Sul defeated the Estonian Grigori Minashkin and got the medal.

Another Brazilian who fought on that day, David Moura, did not fight for a medal but he got in a solid seventh place.

This Monday, athletes from four categories enter the tatami and Brazil is represented in all of them:

63kg - Mariana Silva;

70kg - Barbara Timo;

81kg - Vinicius Panini;

90kg - Eduardo Bettoni.

Author: Press Agency