Gevrise Emane still competes with the best

Olympic bronze medallist Gevrise Emane (FRA) was in sensational form as she emphatically worked her way through the quality field to earn -70kg gold. Emane defeated Abu Dhabi Grand Slam winner Laura VARGAS KOCH (GER) in the final having spent just 94 seconds on the mat in total in her previous three contests. Emane and Vargas Koch failed to unlock their respective defences as the latter lost out by one shido which she received for passivity in the final minute.

In the first semi-final contest VARGAS KOCH held down 19-year-old Monika BURGESS (CAN) with a kesa-gatame for 20 seconds and ippon after two and a half minutes.The German judoka had defeated her colleague Szaundra DIEDRICH (GER) in the quarter-final. In the second semi-final EMANE bested Tbilisi Grand Prix bronze medallist Irina GAZIEVA (RUS) in 59 seconds by ippon with a textbook ouchi-gari.

The first bronze medal was claimed by Tallinn European Open bronze medallist Lior WILDIKAN (ISR) who bested GAZIEVA. After exchanging shido penalties GAZIEVA failed with a ko-soto-gake effort and was countered with a ko-soto-gari for ippon with two minutes remaining. The second bronze medal contest was won by Qingdao Grand Prix silver medallist Assmaa NIANG (MAR) who won back-to-back Grand Prix medals by narrowly defeating BURGESS. There are 12 years between the two judoka but there was little to separate them on the tatami as 31-year-old NIANG won on shido penalties with two against the Canadian while her conqueror registered an unblemished record.