Strong junior winners at Thuringen Pokal: Europe vs Japan

At the strong junior tournament for women in Thueringen near Erfurt a great final in the category U63kg. This time a gold medal for British Lubjana Piovesana. The final was a rematch of last year Junior World Championship bronze medal match where Piovesana lost to Germany’s Lara Reimann. This time it was the British judoka who came out on top with a single yuko proving the difference between the two.

Piovesana made a strong start in the Junior U63kg category with an ippon win over Laerke Olsen (DEN) before following that up with good performances against Jule Horn (GER), Ymke van der Burgh (NED) and Antonia Freyteg (GER).

The semi-final gave the British judoka the opportunity to gain some revenge over Dutch Cadet World champion Sanne Vermeer who beat Piovesana at the Coimbra Junior European Cup the weekend before. It proved a close affair with Piovesana winning by waza-ari in golden score.

The Japanese talents were the strongest as expected with 5 gold medals. Belgium won gold by Justine Deleuil against Sarah Wiesenhofer (AUT). Belgium lost the final U70kg when Gabriella Willems couldn’t beat Saki Niizoe (JPN).

The category U52kg was a French final between Coraline Marcus Tabellion and Gaetane Deberdt, won by Marcus Tabellion.

Canadian Jessica Klimkait lost the final to Miho Tanigawa. “Jessica dominated her opponents in the preliminary matches, showing great class and outstanding submission techniques,” said coach Ewan Beaton. “In the final, she was scored on with a very unusual technique in the first 20 seconds of the match, and could not find solutions to the Japanese defense.”

“It was still a good day for Jessica, but she wanted to win the competition, so in the end, she is disappointed that she could not finish the day at the top of the podium.”

Germany lost two finals by Reimann and Jana Bauernfeind who lost to Rikako Araya. U78kg Ryoka Yamaguchi defeated Dutch Jasmijn Lesterhuis.