Brazilian judo ended its participation in the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv (Israel) with five bronze medals. The last medals came this Saturday (18), with Leonardo Gonçalves, in the up to 100 kilos (kg) category, and Rafael Silva, the “Baby”, among judokas over 100 kg. Natasha Ferreira (up to 48 kg), Larissa Pimenta (up to 52 kg) and Daniel Cargnin (up to 73 kg) were also on the podium in the competition, which started last Thursday (16).
Third place will earn 500 points each in the ranking Olympic Committee of the International Judo Federation (IJF), which considers the results since June 24 of last year. Currently ranked 96th in the up to 100 kg category, Leonardo should get closer to compatriot Rafael Buzacarini, who is ranked 24th. Baby, in turn, occupies the 20th position among athletes over 100 kg and will start next week close to the top-10. Each country can classify only one judoka by weight to the Olympics in Paris (France).
Leonardo won by ippon (judo maximum score) the first two fights, against the Hungarian Zsombor Veg and the Georgian Varlam Liparteliani. In the quarterfinals, the Brazilian couldn’t resist the Dutchman Michael Korrel, deputy leader of the ranking Olympian, but recovered in the repechage. First by defeating Portuguese Jorge Fonseca, two-time world champion. Then, overcoming the Italian Gennaro Pirelli. At the same weight, Buzacarani debuted beating Chilean Thomas Briceño, but lost to Azerbaijani Zelym Kotsoiev and was fired in the second fight.
Baby competed in four matches. After beating the Polish Kacper Szczurowski by ippon and the Ukrainian Yevheniy Balyevskyy by wazari (second highest score in judo), he lost to the Azerbaijani Ushangi Kokauri in the semifinal. In the repechage, the Brazilian put his experience to good use and defeated the South Korean Jaegu Youn, who broke the limit of three shidos (punishments for lack of combativeness).
In the same category, João Cesarino also fought for bronze, but was surpassed by Frenchman Emre Sanal. In the up to 90 kg category, Rafael Macedo lost third place to Mammadali Mehdiyev, from Azerbaijan, while Giovanni Ferreira fell in his debut to the Ukrainian Artem Bubyr. Samanta Soares (up to 78 kg) and Giovanna Santos (over 78 kg) did not make it to the medal match.
