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Kathrin Unterwurzacher dominates category U63kg leading to gold in Antalya

Kathrin Unterwurzacher dominates category U63kg leading to gold in Antalya

8 Apr 2017 19:40
by Mark Pickering - IJF
IJF Media Team / International Judo Federation

Austrian Kathrin Unterwurzacher won her seventh IJF Tour gold medal at the Grand Prix in Antalya. Unterwurzacher who won bronze last week in Tbilisi now qualified for the final.

The winner of the Tokyo Grand Slam in 2016 qualified for the final after having defeated Valentina Kostenko from Russia and Amy Livesey from Great Britain, both on a waza-ari score. In the final she was opposed to Marian Urdabayeva of Kazakhstan who successively defeated during the preliminary rounds Maja Blagojevic (CRO), Olga Kriukova (RUS) and Katharina Haecker (AUS).

Unterwurzacher and Urdabayeva delivered a very intense bout. The Kazakh scored the first with a reversed sode-tsuri-komi-goshi for a waza-ari that surprised the favourite Unterwurzacher. The Austrian did not make the same mistake twice and when Urdabayeva again attacked with the same technique, she countered her for a waza-ari as well. The same scenario was repeated for the last attack of Urdabayeva, and once again Unterwurzacher could counter, score and continue with an immobilisation for ippon.

The first bronze medal contest opposed Valentina Kostenko (RUS) and Katharina Haecker (AUS). At the end of the regular time, both athletes had only one shido each and entered the golden score for almost four minutes. Successively attacking but without scoring, neither Kostenko nor Haecker could take the lead and win. It was after 3 minutes and 50 seconds that Kostenko was penalised with a shido and that Haecker could celebrate her bronze medal.

The second bronze medal contest was a 100% British bout as Lubjana Piovesana (GBR) faced Amy Livesey (GBR). After a little more than one minute, Livesey was already penalised with two shido. Despite a few efforts, she was not able to really impose a different rhythm and she was penalised with a third shido (Hansoku-make), Piovesana taking the bronze medal.

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