Gefen Primo captures gold for Israel

With three bronze medals won this season at the Grand Prix of Hohhot and Marrakech and at the Baku Grand Slam, Gefen Primo (ISR) was the favorite of the day in women's U52kg. She entered the final after her victories against Jeong Bo-Kyeong (KOR) in the semifinal but more significantly against London Olympic Champion, Sarah Menezes (BRA), in her preliminary round. in the final she was opposed to the 2019 Pan-american silver medallist angelica Delgado (USA).

After the first minute only one shido was written on the scoreboard as Primo was penalized for grabbing the fingers of her opponent. As both athletes were entering the last minute, the Israeli was penalized with a second shido for passivity, Delgado clearly being more active. After four minutes, there were still no score to designate the winner. Even if she seemed to be a step ahead, Delgado succumbed to the last tani-otoshi executed by Primo for waza-ari. 

The first bronze medal contest saw 2012 Olympic Champion Sarah Menezes (BRA) and the 2017 Junior European Champion Irem Korkmaz (TUR) compete for a place on the podium. After 30 seconds, Korkmaz received a first penalty for blocking her opponent. All day long, the former Olympic Champion seemed to be far away from her best years, but with a superb left handed combination ko-uchi-gari for waza-ari, she showed that she was still among the top athletes on the circuit. But with a few dozen seconds left and a second shido on the scoreboard, Menezes, suddenly was entering into the red zone. All her experience at that level was necessary to control until the last seconds in order to add a 7th medal on a Grand Prix for the Brazilian.

In the second bronze medal contest the 2018 Tashkent Grand Prix bronze medallist, Agata Perenc (POL), was opposed to 2016 Olympic silver medallist Jeong Bokyeong (KOR). After less than a minute, Jeong scored a close to Ippon waza-ari with a spectacular left handed morote-seoi-nage and she then just had to control the rest of the match to win the bronze medal.