Kim beats Ortiz to dramatically clinch world number one spot

Tokyo Grand Slam bronze medallist Kim Minjeong of Korea defeated three-time Olympic medallist Idalys Ortiz (CUB) in the final of the Masters in St. Petersburg to take over the +78kg category in the last women’s contest on the IJF World Judo Tour 2017. A victory worth 1800 points and 56,000 USD dollar.

Kim profited from an error-strewn display from Ortiz who was reprimanded with her third shido after one minute of golden score. Both judoka had two shidos apiece and were seemingly obvilous to the impending danger as they offered little in the way of attacking intent. The endeavours of the South Korean were more promising and the Cuban was the one penalised as the +78kg category saw a late shake-up on the IJF World Ranking List.

In the first semi-final three-time Ortiz thwarted Tokyo Grand Slam bronze medallist Maria Suelen Altheman (BRA) when the latter was penalised with her third shido to send the Cuban into the gold medal contest.

In the second semi-final Openweight World Championships silver medallist Larisa Ceric (BIH) lost to Kim after 50 seconds of golden score the South Korean judoka threw with a sasae-tsurikomi-ashi for a waza-ari.

The first bronze medal was claimed by Ceric who beat an out-of-sorts Ekaterinburg Grand Slam silver medallist Jasmin Kuelbs (GER) who appeared to be ailing from something. In golden score Ceric seized the moment as she pushed forward for a waza-ari score after 25 seconds of added time as Kuelbs gingerly returned to her feet.

The second bronze medal contest was won by Altheman who beat her heir apparent in Abu Dhabi Grand Slam bronze medallist Beatriz Souza (BRA). The Brazilian tussle favoured the more experienced judoka as Souza received her third shido after two minutes of golden score in a lethargic duel due to their familiarity with each other and their respective styles.

Read all the news about the IJF World Masters in St. Petersburg.