Sunday (15) saw three podiums for Brazilian judo at the Zagreb Grand Prix in Croatia. Marcelo Fronckowiak took silver in the middleweight category (up to 90 kg), while Giovanna Santos (women’s heavyweight, over 78 kg) and Lucas Lima (men’s heavyweight, over 100 kg) took bronze. With the two medals won the day before by Gabriel Falcão (silver in the welterweight category, up to 81 kg) and Nauana Silva (bronze in the women’s welterweight, up to 63 kg), the country ended its participation by reaching the podium five times.
In this competition, the team was represented by younger athletes, after the historic participation of Brazilian judo in the Paris Olympic Games (four medals, one gold, one silver and two bronze). Fronckowiak, for example, is 24 years old.
He advanced to the final, where he lost to Hungarian Peter Safrany, the junior world champion, who defeated him by ippon. It was the best result of the Brazilian’s career in Grand Prix editions to date.
Lucas Lima, 25, made it to the semi-finals, where he lost to Poland’s Grzergorz Teresinski. In the third-place play-off, he defeated Dutchman Jelle Snippe, who was disqualified for an illegal maneuver.
Giovanna Santos, 23, followed the same path. She was defeated by Israel’s Yuli Alma Mishiner in the semi-finals and beat Austria’s Maria Hoelwartt in the bronze medal match, winning due to her opponent’s accumulation of penalties.
The next major competition on the International Judo Federation circuit will be the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in October.
