The four of them Cuban judokas who fought this Sunday at the closing of the Zagreb Grand Prix, in Croatiasaid goodbye to the contest without accessing the awards podium.
What seemed like a promising day, thanks to the presence on the tatamis of several of the main figures of the Island, such as the multi-champion Idalys Ortiz (+78 kg) and the also stellar Iván Silva (90 kg), ended up on duty after the Cubans fell before the medal definitions.
The representative in the 78 kg division, Kaliema Antomarchi, beat the Turkish Nircam Yilmaz in her first fight, but lost in her second outing against the Israeli Inbar Lanir, who also beat her in the Hungarian Grand Slam a week ago, reports a note published on the website Hit.
In the repechage, Antomarchi could not beat the judoka from the Netherlands, Karen Stevenson, who left her out of the medal chances. With this, the woman from Santiago equaled her seventh place in Budapest.
Sunday without prize for #Cuba in Grand Prix of #Judo from Zagreb. The delegation finished in 17th place with the silver medal for Magdiel Estrada, achieved this Saturday.https://t.co/2lFZmVxrd2 pic.twitter.com/MvGmCQQhp1
— JIT Cuban Sport (@jit_digital) July 17, 2022
For her part, Idalys Ortiz (+78 kg) could not do herself justice and lost in her first match of the second round, after being bye in the first instance, against the Serbian Milica Savic. Her rival thus took revenge on the Cuban, after her defeat in the first round in Budapest a few days ago, the sports medium specifies.
Both bouts, the one in Hungary and the one in Croatia, were decided by hansoku make (disqualification) after three Shidos, this time favorable to the European, who ultimately won the silver medal. With this, the Tokyo Olympic runner-up could not get on the podium as expected before the competition, the source said.
Meanwhile, in the 90 kg among men, Iván Silva beat Italian Nicholas Mungai by waza ari and the Spanish Tristani Mosakhlishvili for ipponbut lost anyway ippon against the Japanese Kenta Nagasawa, winner of one of the bronze medals.
In the play-off, he faced Frenchman Francis Damier, who also beat him by waza ari and left him out of the medal discussion. In this way, Silva was unable to emulate his bronze from Budapest, an event in which Ortiz had achieved second place.
Judo: silver for Idalys Ortiz closes Cuban performance at Grand Slam in Budapest
Finally, in +100 kg Andy Granda was left without options, when he lost to the Finn Martti Puumalainen by ipponafter taking advantage of waza ariprecise Hit. Before that lawsuit, the Cuban left the Mexican Sergi del Sol on the road for ippon. Ultimately, Puumalainen lost his next challenge, so he didn’t drag Granda down.
With the poor results this Sunday, the cuban judo squad could not add another medal to the silver reached by Magdiel Estrada on the previous day, and finished in 17th place among the 69 participating nations in a tournament that was won by the Netherlands.
The Europeans beat the strong Japanese squad with the same harvest of two gold medals and a couple of bronze medals, but with two fifth places that favored them in the medal table.
Canada was third with two titles in a very close competition, in which representatives from up to 11 countries managed to climb to the top of the podium. In addition to the top three, Georgia, Israel, France, Azerbaijan, Italy, Croatia, Kazakhstan and Great Britain won a gold metal, the publication summarizes.
