At the Park24 Group Tokyo Grand Slam, Hyeonji Lee (KOR) had a big task ahead of her; her teammate and the current world champion was her opposition in the +78 kg final in Tokyo, Hayun Kim (KOR).
Lee, still just 18 years old, is improving month on month. Both a cadet and junior world champion, she won her first grand slam gold in Kazakhstan in May but Tokyo is another step up and not an easy one. Lee approached the challenge admirably and when her adversary dropped underneath her without breaking balance, she capitalised and applied a shime-waza for ippon. That makes Lee the 12th youngest ever winner at the Tokyo Grand Slam.
A former world champion stepped on to each mat for the bronze medal contest. The first, Wakaba Tomita (JPN), would face Safa Soliman (EGY), a junior judoka making a remarkable rise. The second, Romane Dicko (FRA) would face Mao Arai (JPN), the world silver medallist from this summer in Hungary.
Safa Soliman had her tactics planned perfectly against Tomita. She powered into her opponent, closing the space and gripping over the back. It caused Tomita a lot of problems and she began to collect penalties, two in normal time. As they went into golden score she would have to change the rhythm or it would all be over for her.
Experienced and determined she applied a fast o-uchi-gari at just the right moment to knock Soliman off balance. The referee scored it and the Egyptian looked dejected immediately. She was so close to the podium but it wasn’t to be.
Dicko had not looked at her best during the morning session but in the bronze medal contest she was thinking more clearly and did what most cannot, turning her Japanese opponent on to her back to secure an unshakable osaekomi. Dicko looked concrete and much more like the world champion she is. Ippon was scored and the medal was hers.
AloJapan.com