The Portuguese Catarina Costa won the bronze medal today in the -48 kg category of the Tokyo Grand Slam, being the only one of the five Portuguese judokas present in Japan to get on the podium.
After being exempt from the first round, Catarina Costa defeated, by ‘ippon’, the South Korean Kyeongha Lee in the second round and, in the quarterfinals, she eliminated the Japanese Kano Miyaki, also by ‘ippon’, to qualify for the semifinals – finals.
However, in the semifinals she would end up losing to the Spanish Julia Figueroa, by ‘waza-ari’, leaving her without qualifying for the -48 kg final.
In the fight for the bronze medal, the Portuguese judoka beat Taipei Chen-Hao Lin, by ‘ippon’.
In the same category, Raquel Brito began by winning the first fight, against Gabonese Virgínia Aymard, by ‘ippon’, but was defeated in the second round by Baasankhuu Bavuudorj, from Mongolia, by ‘waza-ari’.
In -63 kg, Bárbara Timo reached the semifinals, where she was defeated, by ‘ippon’, by the Japanese Miku Takaichi, who would win the gold medal.
In the fight for bronze, Timo lost to the Dutch Joanne van Lieshout, by ‘ippon’, in what was the Portuguese judoka’s sixth duel in the competition.
She began by beating the Spanish Cristina Cabana Pérez in the first round, by ‘waza-ari’, she eliminated the Israeli Gili Sharir, by ‘ippon’, in the second, and beat the Dutchman Geke van den Berg in the third match. by ‘waza-ari’.
In the quarterfinals he beat the Slovenian Andreja Leski, by ‘ippon’, before losing in the semifinals to Miku Takaichi.
Joana Diogo was placed in the second round at -52 kg, in which she was eliminated by the Mongolian Sosorbaram Lkhagvasuren, by ‘ippon’, after beating the North American Malia Soberano in the first fight.
In the men’s category, the only Portuguese representative was Miguel Gago, in -66 kg, who was exempt from the first round, he defeated the Colombian Juan Hernández in the second, by ‘waza-ari’, but ended up defeated in the third fight. by Moldovan Denis Vieru, for ‘ippon’.
Source: TSF
