Kim Polling wins gold medal at Grand Slam in Tyumen

Dutch World number one Kim Polling was pushed all the way in Tyumen as she had showed grit and industry to win U70kg gold. European champion Polling, who earned bronze in Rio last year, defeated two-time Pan American champion Kelita Zupancic of Canada with a waza-ari from a trademark ura-nage setting her on her way before her opponent scored a yuko with an ouchi-gari. That score was registered with only 35 seconds remaining and Polling led the former world number one Zupancic onto the ground to use up the remainder of the time.

In the first semi-final Zupancic bested 20-year-old Junior World Championships silver medalist Arai Chizuru with a purposeful performance that saw the Japanese fighter lose out by a waza-ari which was the only score of the contest. In the second semi-final Polling defeated world bronze medallist KIM Seongyeon (KOR). The Dutch star won by way of shido penalties as she posted an unblemished record while Kim was penalized for going out of the area and passivity.

The first bronze medal was won by Tokyo Grand Slam winner Arai as she dismissed Qingdao Grand Prix winner Chen Fei of China in just 54 seconds as she threw with uchi-mata for ippon. The second bronze medal went to losing semi-finalist KIM who returned to winning ways against world bronze medallist Gevrise Emane of France. Both judoka had two shido penalties going into the final minute and Emane - who was the only entry from France with their U70kg selection for the World Championships still to be confirmed – received a shido for passivity which separated the rivals at the end of the contest. 

The two-day Grand Slam at the Tyumen Athletic Centre attracted a world-class field of 264 judoka from 38 countries including Russia’s 55-strong team who were spurred on by the animated crowd who have seen some of the sport’s finest events in the city in recent years.

The Grand Slam here in Tyumen has been a good rehearsal for August’s World Championships in Chelyabinsk. I’m quite confident that the organisers will deliver a good World Championships which is crucial to the Olympic qualification hopes of all judoka, Sports Director Daniel Lascau said.