Judoka Catarina Costa, European runner-up in the title, secured a medal at the European Championships in Montpellier, France, on Friday by qualifying for the final of the -48 kg category.
Catarina Costa, eighth in the world rankings and fourth seed, secured her place in the battle for gold after beating Austria’s Katharina Tanzer (27th), Spain’s Laura Martinez Abelenda (12th) and Slovenia’s Marusa Stangar (17th).
In the first two matches, the judoka from Académica de Coimbra achieved victories in extra time (golden score), but in the semi-finals she defeated Stangar with a waza-ari, the second highest score, 1.13 minutes before the end.
In the battle for the gold medal, in battles taking place from 3 p.m. (in Lisbon), Catarina Costa meets French Shirine Boukli, second in the world at -48 kg, and the judoka who defeated her in the final of the European Championships in Sofia, 2022.
In addition to the European titles in 2022 and 2020, the Gallic judoka is also second in the world title.
Catarina Costa and Boukli fought only twice in their careers, with the Frenchwoman winning both times, in Sofia, and that same year in the semi-finals of the Jerusalem Masters, where the Portuguese would win bronze.
Last Friday, Portugal also had judokas Rodrigo Lopes (-60 kg), Joana Diogo (-52 kg) and Maria Siderot (-52 kg) in action at the European Championships, all eliminated in the first fight, as well as Telma Monteiro (-57 kg) , record holder for medals in the competition (six gold, two silver and seven bronze), who withdrew due to injury.
Source: DN
