Sarah Menezes and Charles Chibana Are the Champions of the Grand Slam of Tyumen
Brazil won two silvers with Felipe Kitadai and Marcelo Contini as well as two bronzes with Erika Miranda and Alex Pombo. On Sunday, six other athletes are going to fight for medals in the last competition before the World Championship.
Brazil started very well the Grand Slam of Tyumen, the most important competition since the world ranking began to be important for the Olympic one. There were six medals on the first day of the championship held in Russia which will host the World Championship at the end of August: Sarah Menezes (48kg) and Charles Chibana (66kg) were champions; Felipe Kitadai (60kg) and Marcelo Contini (73kg) got the silver; and Erika Miranda (52kg) and Alex Pombo (73kg) the bronze. The gold is 500 point-worth for the ranking, the silver 300 and the bronze 200 points.
The first gold of the day came with Sarah Menezes. She defeated Irina Dolgova (RUS) with a yuko in her first fight in the quarter-finals. In the decisive fights she applied two ippons. In the semifinal, Valentina Moscatt (ITA) took the perfect stroke after three minutes and twenty seconds of fight. In the big decision, the Olympic champion needed just 32 seconds to overthrow the Japanese Emi Yamagishi and keep the title of the competition.
"I'm delighted to get to my third gold in Grand Slams. This medal gives me even more confidence to get my first senior World title, “Sarah Menezes said. The podium also was reached by the Brazilian Taciana Lima, defending Guinea Bissau, her father’s country of origin.
Charles Chibana (66kg) had a nice walk towards the gold award, winning three out of four fights by ippon. His first victim was the Russian Armen Avagyan who, beyond ippon, was applied three times a yuko. The second fight was the hardest and the Spanish Sugoi Uriarte lost because of three Shidos. In the semifinal against the Japanese Masaaki Fukuoka, Chibana was impossible. He applied to his opponent a twice wazari in the 37’’ and 56’’of the fight and in the first minute he guaranteed himself a place in the final. The performance in the grand final was not different. Chibana defeated the Japanese Yuhei Rokugo by ippon with an amazing ura-nage after 57 seconds of fight and got thus the gold.
"This gold is the result of a great planning and training we're doing with BJC and the Pinheiros club. It was in Russia where I got a position for the last year’s World Championship and the title is an additional motivation for this year’s one, "Chibana said.
Felipe Kitadai (60kg) made his walk to the final beating hia opponents by the same score: one wazari and one yuko. With two scores he overcame the Uzbekistan Diyorbek Urozboev in the first round, the Czech Pavel Petrikov in the quarter-finals and the Russian Savva Karakizidi in the semifinal. In the decision, he was defeated by the Japanese Shinji Kido by punishment.
Erika Miranda (52kg) began winning the fight against Darya Skrypnik from Belarus by ippon. Then she overcame the Romanian Larissa Florian by yuko. In the semifinal, she had a tough fight against the Russian Yulia Ryzhova. The fight tied in the regular time with two punishments for each athlete. But in the golden score, the vice world champion was defeated by a wazari and she went to the fight for bronze. In the fight against the Spanish Laura Gomez, she won by ippon in the last 30 seconds of the fight and guaranteed a place on the podium.
The podium with the highest number of Brazilian judokas was the men's lightweight category. And the Russian Denis Iartcev was the tormentor of both Brazilians who competed in the category. Alex Pombo defeated the Uzbek Sarvar Shomurodov in the first round but was defeated in the quarter-finals by Iartcev. In the repechage, he defeated the Czech Jaromir Jezek and in the bronze decision the Belarusian Vadzim Shoka.
"It was not the position that I wanted but I think I had a good performance. It is very important to be always winning medals, "Alex Pombo said.
Contini won the Kazakh Kairat Agibayev, the Canadian Etienne Briand, the Russian Uali Kurzhev and the Belarusian Vadzim Shoka before reaching the decision. But in the decision he lost by only one more shido than the Russian Iartcev and got thus the silver.
"It was a very tough competition but I managed to fight well. In the final I skipped some details, which eventually led to one more punishment. We always want the first place, but anyway, it was a very good and important result for me, " said Contini .
Brazil still had two more representatives in Tyumen. The world champion Rafaela Silva (57kg) ended up being surprised by the athlete from Taipei, Lien Cheng-li, and was defeated by a shido in her first fight. Mariana Barros (63kg) also ended defeated by a punishment in her first round against the Russian Margarita Gurtsieva.
On Sunday, the second and last day of the Grand Slam, Brazil will be represented by Barbara Timo (70kg), Mayra Aguiar (78kg), Maria Suelen Altheman (+78 kg), Victor Penalber (81kg), Luciano Correa (100kg) and Rafael Silva (+100 kg).
