Seven Brazilian Athletes Are in the Top Three of their Categories
Rafaela Silva is the only one falling one position, but the world champion is still a big challenge for her opponents
This Tuesday (18/9 ) a new update of the IJF ranking was released. It added the points scored in the Grand Prix of Rijeka held in Croatia last weekend. After the change, there were seven Brazilian athletes in top three in their categories, three of them being leaders of the ranking.
Sarah Menezes (AJ Expedito Falcão, PI) is ahead of all the other athletes in the extra lightweight category (48kg): the Olympic champion has 2454 points against 1910 points scored by the world champion Urantsetseg Munkhbat from Mongolia, on the second place. Among the medium heavy (78kg) Mayra Aguiar is the leader. Her 2380 points ensured that the athlete from Sogipa / RS have 358 points more than the Hungarian Abigel Joo , who has 2018 points. The other leader is Maria Suelen Altheman (Rogério Sampaio Judo Association / SP ) , who , in the heavyweight category ( +78 kg ) has 26 points more than her great rival, the Cuban Idalys Ortiz, meaning 2756 points for Brazil against 2730 for the Caribbean island .
The second best athletes in their categories are Erika Miranda ( 52kg , Minas TC / MG ) , Victor Penalber ( 81kg , Institute Reação / RJ ) and Rafael Silva ( +100 kg , EC Pinheiros / SP ). Ahead of the world silver medalist, Erika Miranda, is Majlinda Kalmendi from Kosovo. Kelmendi has 2980 points against Erika’s 1670 points. In Victor Penalber’s category, who has 1556 points, the leader is still the Georgian Avtandil Tchrikishvili with 1994 points. And among the heavyweight athletes, Rafael Silva is not in front of Teddy Riner. But the French athlete has only 20 points more than the Brazilian one: 2300 versus 2280.
The world champions Rafaela Silva (Institute Reação / RJ) fell to the third place in the ranking in the 57kg category . Germany\'s Myriam Roper, defeated by Rafaela in the World Judo Team Championships took the second place after her title at the Grand Prix of Rijeka. Now, Rafaela Silva has 1918 points against Roper’s 1994 and Automne Pavia’s 2230, who was also defeated by the Brazilian judoka in Rio de Janeiro.
\"Although we did not have representatives in Croatia, the athletes generally kept their positions. Now we go to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan where we will take a team of young athletes; they can rise significantly in the rankings in the near future , culminating with our goal, which is to have at least two athletes in the Olympic ranking in 2016 . We want to have two teams ready to compete in the Olympics, \"said the BJC’s Performance Director, Ney Wilson .
The complete ranking can be seen in attach, at the end of this article.
