Portugal had an entry to forget in the Grand Slam of Tel Aviv in judo this Wednesday, knocking out Catarina Costa, Maria Siderot, Telma Monteiro and Rodrigo Lopes on their debut.
There was not much margin for the Portuguese judokas, nor for Telma Monteiro (-57 kg) or Catarina Costa (-48 kg), who took part as fifth and fourth favorite in their respective categories and were exempted in the first round.
Telma Monteiro was the first of the two to enter the ‘tatami’, where the Benfica judoka was already eliminated in the ‘golden score’, fighting period after the regulation four minutes, with a third penalty (shido).
In a balanced fight, the Portuguese went into extra time covered, with two penalties – a third dictates elimination -, but her opponent, the Italian Verónica Toniolo (22nd in the world) also saw a second in extra time.
With no great capacity for imbalances, on either side, it would be Telma who was penalized for the third time, with 3.45 minutes of ‘overtime’ (7.45 minutes in total for the fight), receiving a hansoku-make (disqualification) dictated.
Almost immediately it was the turn of Catarina Costa, European runner-up and recently fifth in the Grand Prix of Portugal, after already winning a bronze medal at the Masters, to leave the scene, surprised by the Israeli Tamar Malca (45th ). .
The judoka of Académica de Coimbra, ninth in the world at -48 kg and fourth seed in Tel Aviv, was projected at 2.06 minutes in the middle of the fight, initially in a move similar to waza-ari, but which the table corrected to ippon .
Maria Siderot (69th), with -52 kg, and Rodrigo Lopes (31st), with — 60 kg, were not favorites against the Belgian Amber Ryheul (31st) and the Dutchman Tornike Tsjakadoea (20th) respectively. both in the ‘golden score’, the first by ‘waza-ari’ and the second by accumulating penalties.
Portugal has nine registered judokas in Tel Aviv, with João Fernando and Anri Egutidze (-81 kg) competing on Friday, and Jorge Fonseca (-100 kg), returning from injury, Patrícia Sampaio (-78 kg) and Rochele Nunes ( + 78 kg) on Saturday.
Source: DN
