Former cadet ace Ryoko Takeda takes the top prize in Nassau

Former Cadet World Championships gold medallist Takeda Ryoko of Japan won the Junior version of the world title with victory over Agadir Grand Prix silver medallist Gefen Primo (ISR) in the first final on day two. Takeda, whose 2015 world title win came in the U57kg category, looked comfortable at U52kg as she beat her Israeli opponent by two unanswered scores.

Takeda concluded a fine win with a sode-tsurikomi-goshi for her second and match-winning score to add to Japan’s glut of gold medals in the Bahamas.  

In the first semi-final four-time Junior European Cup bronze medallist Aleksandra Kaleta (POL) fell to the dynamic Takeda by a waza-ari from an o-uchi-gari to seal a place in the gold medal contest. In the second semi-final Primo rescued her contest against Riciu having initially trailed by a waza-ari score. Primo rolled her Romanian opponent over for a waza-ari score and followed up with osaekomi-waza in the form of a kesa-gatame for 10 seconds to secure a place in the final.

The first bronze medal was won by Riciu who countered an uchi-mata from Junior European Championships winner Faiza Mokdar (FRA) by rolling the French judoka over for a waza-ari after 15 seconds of golden score. 

The second bronze medal was claimed by Kaleta who tapped out Junior European Championships bronze medallist Coraline Marcus Tabellion (FRA) with a juji-gatame for ippon. France were denied their first medal of the competition as the Polish judoka was superior and opened her country’s medal account in the Bahamas.