Vitor Torrente Wins the Bronze Medal at the World Junior Championship
Vito Torente was the first Brazilian athlete who managed to reach the podium after winning an exciting fight
On Wednesday the World Junior Championship began in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Brazil has already won a medal. Five Brazilians went to the mat on this first day and Vitor Torrente won four fights before getting to the podium.
Vitor defeated all his opponents from the starting block in the same way: by ippon. There were three fights in which the extra light-weight athlete took part: against the Mexican David Garcia, the Turkish Yavuz Besel and the Georgian Leri Tchelidze. In the final block, Vitor reached the semifinal against the Venezuelan Armando Maita, where after a wazari he fell by ippon. The bronze medal was fought in an exciting combat, where the Bulgarian Valentin Alipiev was defeating the Brazilian by wazari until the last 15 seconds of the fight, when Vitor got the same projection and was in advantage for having no Shido, different from the Bulgarian judoka. At the last second, however, the Brazilian applied an ippon to get his bronze medal.
“Wow, it is very difficult for me express in words how happy I am. I cried a lot after the fight and victory. I am grateful to God for it; I know He helped me a lot. I entered the competition to give my best, always thinking of fighting for the sake of the fight, and here is the result. I do not regret anything; I know that\'s what was planned for me, \"said the bronze medalist Victor Torrente.
Gabriela Chibana won by ippon her first two fights in the light weight category. Her victims were the Swiss Tamara Silva and the Portuguese Joana Diogo, against whom she applied yuko and wazari before finalizing the fight. However, in the semifinal , Gabriela fell to the Russian Irina Dolgova for having three penalties against two of the opponent. The opponents of the contention for the bronze medal were the Japanese Tamami Yamazaki , who applied ippon when the Brazilian was wining by two yukos.
The other Brazilians who went to the mats today did not reach the final block. Tawany Silva ( SEDUC - Praia Grande / SP ) lost in the quarter- final by wazari to the American Alex Hyatt . In the up-to-48kg category, Nathália Brigida ( Minas / MG ) also fell in the quarter- final against the Romanian Alexandra Pop and Nicolas Santos ( 60kg ADPM - San Jose / SP ) won his debut against the Dutch Jamie Raijmakers by ippon, but he fell in the next fight, against the yuko applied by the Hungarian Csaba Szabo .
On Thursday ( 24/10 ) the 52kg , 57kg , 66kg and 73kg-categories will be fighting. Jessica Pereira ( 52kg ) will face the winner of the dispute between the South Korean Jeong Jang Ji and the Dominican Angelica Pena. In the 57kg-category , as well as in the up-to-48kg one, Brazil has two athletes as well. Flavia Gomes, the world junior champion in 2009, is key number one and waits for the outcome of the fight between the Japanese Christa Deguchi and the Romanian Stefania Adelina Dobre; Camila Barreto is also in \"stand by \" in the first round and waist for the outcome of the fight between the Mexican Karla Tapia and the Russian Daria Mezhetskaia. In another category doubled by the technical committee, up-to-66kg , Ricardo Santos Junior starts his first fight against the Italian Matteo Piras and Gabriel Pinheiro faces the Puerto Rican Adrian Gandia. Among the 73kg-athletes, Gabriel Mendes begins his fights against the Latvian Dmitrijs Fedosejenkovs.
Awarded athletes in the first day of competition:
44kg:
Gold – Anastasia Pavlenko / Russia
Silver – Andreea Stefanescu / Romania
Bronze – Honoka Yamauchi / Japan; Olfa Saoudi / Tunisia
48 kg:
Gold – Irina Dolgova / Russia
Silver – Alexandra Pop / Romania
Bronze – Amandine Buchard / France; Tamami Yamazaki /Japan
55kg:
Gold – Vincent Manquest / France
Silver – Armando Maita / Venezuela
Bronze – Vitor Torrente / Brazil; Leri Tchelidze / Georgia
60kg:
Gold - An Baul / South Korea
Silver – Diyorbek Urozboev / Uzbekistan
Bronze – Ahmet Sahin Kaba / Turkey; Yuma Oshima / Japan
