The judoka Catarina Costa, runner-up in Europe in -48 kg, defends the gold medal won last year in the Portuguese Grand Prix competition, in which Jorge Fonseca and Telma Monteiro are major casualties.
The two-time world champion in -100 kg in 2019 and 2021, who also won gold in the first edition of the Grand Prix on Portuguese soil in 2022, and the Benfica judoka continue to recover from injuries, which already made them miss the Masters in December of the modality.
The competition at the Municipal Sports Complex of the City of Almada, which will be held between Friday and Sunday, marks the start of this year’s international circuit and has 37 registered Portuguese judokas, 20 male and 17 female.
With Jorge Fonseca and Telma Monteiro out, Catarina Costa (-48 kg), Bárbara Timo (-63 kg), Patrícia Sampaio (-78 kg), Rochele Nunes (+78 kg) and Anri Egutidze (-81 kg), also as Rodrigo Lopes (-60 kg) and Joana Diogo (-52 kg), all from the Olympic project.
From this group, the Portuguese team will have Catarina Costa (first), Joana Diogo (sixth), bronze in 2022, Bárbara Timo (third), Patrícia Sampaio (sixth) and Rochele Nunes (second) as seeded in the respective categories. .
As for men, Rodrigo Lopes is the best classified, since he entered 12th and 31st in the world ranking in -60 kg, while Anri Egutidze will return, this time, to -81 kg, a category in which he competed until the Tokyo Olympics. , later opting to go up to -90 kg.
The Benfica judoka chose, according to the coaches, to return to the lower weight category, and it will be there, at a time when he is ranked 56th in the world ranking, that he will regain qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Almada also highlights the return to the international scene of Célio Dias, who was at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, weighing -90 kg, but went through a difficult stage in life, diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia. , recently returning to judo.
In December, the judoka was proclaimed national champion in -100 kg, category in which he will compete in this Grand Prix.
With 579 registered, but without a ‘thick slice’ of judokas from the top 10 in the world, taking into account that the competition precedes a renowned Grand Slam in Paris by a week, the main option for athletes, Almada is an opportunity for a few second lines in the race for points in the Olympic qualification.
Of the 14 categories, the British Chelsie Giles (-52 kg) and the Georgian Ília Sulamanidze (-100 kg) are the only world leaders to compete, who is also expected by the world champion Rafaela Silva (-57 kg) and the Olympian +100 kg champion Lukas Krpalek, but entered -100 kg.
Source: TSF
