Inbal Shemesh surprises with gold in Tbilisi

Among the top twelve in the world ranking, Ketleyn Quadros was the only one who travelled to Tbilisi. The Brazilian is number six in the world started as a favourite. She didn't fail and didn't get too tired either, reaching the final as planned. The name of her opponent remained to be seen and there were doubts, for just a few minutes, the time it took for Inbal Shemesh to enter the tatami.

The 25-year-old Israeli occupies the 50th position in the ranking. Her name did not appear in any pool and she arrived in Georgia quietly, without anyone noticing. Shemesh destroyed all odds with spectacular judo and reached the final in which Quadros was no longer so serene, as witness to the performance of the Israeli.

It was not a final to frame; each decided to cancel the other, for three minutes, until Shemesh took the initiative with a ura-nage that sent the Brazilian flying. The Israeli didn't make the trip for nothing since she won her first grand slam gold medal. The two bronze medals went to the Brazilian Tamires Crude and the French Manon Deketer. Crude defeated the German Nadja Bazynski with a magnificent ippon, celebrated by the public. Deketer did the same in golden score against the Dutch Geke Van Den Berg.

Shemesh: “It gives me confidence and it shows me that the hard work pays off. I don’t know what will happen next but I’ll go in every competition just to do my best and enjoy because I really love judo, it really makes me happy. As you can see after the final I was crying like a baby because I was so excited because I was so happy”.