Linda Bolder completely back at world level with Israelian gold in Samsun

Linda Bolder celebrated her comeback with her first gold medal since December 2013. After her knee injury she is back in the Olympic qualification, but now for Israel. With no surprise, top seeded athlete and two-time world champion, Yuri ALVEAR (COL), entered the final of the women’s -70kg category. Competing now for Israel, Linda BOLDER joined the Colombian hero to determine who would top the podium on the occasion of the second day of competition in Samsun.

With her red back number, the current world champion is easily recognisable, but this did not intimidate Linda Bolder who executed a perfect counterattack (ko-soto-gari) after the o-uchi-gari attempt of Alvear. Within a second, the Columbian was on her back, with force, speed and control, and Linda Bolder had a huge smile on her face.

Linda Bolder said: “I am super happy tonight, because I changed nationality and I am now competing for Israel, so I lost all my points. With this victory, I am back in the World Ranking List and I qualified for the European Games. In the final I was against the three times world champion, but that was really not a problem, because I had good sensations throughout my competition day. It was an instinctive reaction to Alvear’s attack and I was successful. I am happy for my new team, which is helping me a lot.“

Brazilian, Maria PORTELA, winner of the Moscow Grand Slam in 2012 and today world number 22, and TSEND AYUSH Naranjargal (MGL), who won the Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix last year, also qualified for the final block to determine the destination of the first bronze medal. Maria PORTELA quickly scored a waza-ari, but she was not able to control TSEND AYUSH Naranjargal, who put tremendous pressure on her shoulders and the Brazilian was penalised four times, for hansoku-make.

The second bronze medal fight opposed Roxane TAEYMANS (BEL) and Sally CONWAY (GBR), silver medallist on the occasion of last year’s Baku Grand Slam. Roxane TAEYMANS was rapidly penalised with a first shido for stepping outside on the fighting area, followed by two other penalties, when the British athlete was only penalised two times, enough for her to reach the podium of the Samsun Grand Prix this year.