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Munkhbat Urantsetseg claims unique gold at Grand Slam Tokyo

Munkhbat Urantsetseg claims unique gold at Grand Slam Tokyo

2 Dec 2016 13:05
by Mark Pickering - IJF
JudoHeroes

The category U48kg was the only category without any Japanese in the final. In fact all other categories had an All Japanese final, but today at the Grand Slam in Tokyo Former world champion Munkhbat Urantsetseg and Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist Jeong Bo-Kyeong (KOR) qualified. Munkhbat won her first event outside her homeland in 2016.

Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix winner Munkhbat won her fourth Grand Slam gold medal on shido penalties 1:2 as Jeong was twice reprimanded for being passive.

In the first semi-final Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh (KAZ) fell to Jeong who dictated the pace of the contest and offered the greater attacking threat. The Asian rivals were all-square after four scoreless minutes and golden score was required to produce a finalist. After an additional one minute and 48 seconds the South Korean fighter caught Galbadrakh with ashi-waza for a yuko score and a place in the gold medal contest.

In the second semi-final Tyumen Grand Slam winner Tonaki Funa (JPN), who defeated teammate and Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Kondo Ami (JPN) in their quarter-final by ippon in golden score with a tani-otoshi, narrowly lost out to Munkhbat. A shido against the young Japanese judoka settled the scoreless contest as the experienced Mongolian prevailed.

The first bronze medal contest was clinched by Tonaki who pipped Budapest Grand Prix winner Endo Hiromi (JPN) to the podium. Pocked-sized Tonaki and Endo, one of the tallest judoka in this weight category, cancelled each other out in regular time and had to go golden score to determine a winner. The opening contest of the final block was a key domestic clash as not only did it earn the winner a Grand Slam medal but by beating a teammate the result will impact international selections for 2017 as both chase a spot at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Tonaki came away with the medal as Endo was penalised with a shido after 40 seconds. The second bronze medal was won by Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Kondo Ami (JPN) who turned the contest on its head in the last 25 seconds to beat Galbadrakh. The latter led with a yuko and defended a juji-gatame attempt from Kondo as she looked on course for the podium. However, with 25 seconds left Kondo was generating one-way traffic and sent the Kazakh over with a ouchi-gari for a yuko. Galbadrakh had already received a shido and that error ensured that Kondo compelted a dramatic comeback to match the result of Tonaki Funa.

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