The Portuguese judoka Rochele Nunes won this Sunday, October 23, one of the bronze medals in +78 kg at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, raising Portugal’s balance in the competition to two podiums, after Bárbara Timo’s silver in -63. kg.
In the heaviest category of women’s judo, the judoka, born in Brazil and naturalized Portuguese in 2019, won her ‘poule’, with two victories, reaching the semifinals, where she lost the fight. She fell in the dispute for the bronze medals, she returned to her best level and beat the Chinese Shiyan Xu.
Patrícia Sampaio (-78 kg) also competed in Abu Dhabi today, winning one fight and losing another. She didn’t make it to the playoffs, because the opponent who pushed her didn’t win the group. Also in action was Anri Egutidze (-90kg), eliminated in the first fight.
In the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Portugal had Catarina Costa in competition on Friday, who finished fifth with -48 kg, Rodrigo Lopes with a win and a loss with -60 kg, and Telma Monteiro (-57 kg) and Joana God. (-52 kg), with defeats in his debut.
Rochele Nunes, 17th in the world ranking, add another 250 points and in the next list will appear in the ‘top 15’, thanks to this bronze. In his group, he defeated the Saudi Tahani Alqahtani by ‘ippon’, and the Kazakh Kamila Berlikash, with the second ‘wazari’. In access to the final, she lost to Georgian Sophia Somkhishvili, also by ‘wazari’.
His best fight came next, in the fight for bronze, against the Chinese Shiyan Xu, defeated by ‘ippon’, in just one minute and 11 seconds. Xu, 11th in the ‘ranking’, is the best Chinese at the moment and runner-up in Asia.
In the -78 kg category, Patrícia Sampaio recovered from her injury (she had not competed since fifth place at the European Championships in April) and debuted with a ‘wazari’ victory over two-time Pan American champion Vanessa Chala, from Ecuador. She then fought against Giorgia Stangherlin, from Italy, and lost by ‘wazari’, finishing in 9th position.
Anri Egutidze (-90kg) was unable to overcome his first opponent, Jamal Petgrave from the UK, suffering ‘wazari’ in a ‘golden point’ period.
Source: Observadora
