The cuban judoka Maylín del Toro managed to climb this Saturday to the podium of the Grand Slam in Budapest, Hungary, and thus gave Cuba its first medal in the strong contest.
The Antillean conquered the bronze metal in the 63 kilograms (kg) by defeating by Ippon in the fight for one of the third places to the British Gemma Howell, according to review the Cuban News Agency (ACN).
To get there Del Toro won in the preliminary rounds against Gere Van Dem Berg, from the Netherlands, and the local Brigitta Varga, but then gave in to the Brazilian Katleyn Quadros, and had to go to the playoffs.
Already in that instance she surpassed the Canadian Catherine Beuchemin, which allowed her to dispute the bronze against Howell and finally get the medal.
The title went to the Japanese Megumi Horikawa, who defeated the Polish Angelika Szymanska in the final, while the other bronze medal went to the neck of the Venezuelan Anriquelis Barrios, victimizer of the Brazilian Quadros.
Day 2 medalists at #JudoHungary pic.twitter.com/t864oMS87l
— Judo (@Judo) July 9, 2022
The other Cuban in competition this Saturday was Magdiel Estrada, who finished fifth in the 73 kg, according to the news report.
In the fight for third place, Estrada gave in for Wazari against Azerbaijani Rustan Orujov and narrowly missed the podium despite advancing undefeated to the semi-finals. In that instance he fell against another Azerbaijani, Gidayat Heydarov, eventual champion in Budapest, who sent him to discuss the bronze with his compatriot Orujov.
Arnaes Odelín also finished this Friday in fifth place, in the 57 kg among the ladies, while Danny Porte, who represented the Island in the men’s 60 kg, fell in his debut.
This Sunday, on the last day of the tournament, Cuba will have its main figures on the Hungarian tatamis: the world and Olympic multi-medallist Idalis Ortiz (+78 kg), the also stellar Iván Silva (90 kg), and the experienced Kaliema Antomarchi ( 78kg) and Andy Granda (+100kg).
The first opponents for Ortiz, Silva, Antomarchi and Granda will be the Serbian Milica Zaic, the Bosnian Toni Miletic, the Chinese Zhenzhao Ma and the winner of the fight between the Uzbek Shokhruh Bakhtiyorov and the American Christian Konoval, respectively, according to the office of the ACN.
After two days of combat, Cuba is in 14th place in the medal table with a bronze medal. The tournament is led by Japan with five titles, followed by Azerbaijan (1-1-1), Brazil (1-1-0), Belgium (1-0-0) and Hungary (1-0-0).