Milica Zabic surprises with Grand Slam gold for Serbija

The final of the Grand Slam in Baku was between Milica Zabic (SRB) and Rochele Nunes of Portugal. Zabic defeated Berlikash (KAZ) in the semi-final. It was Zabic to win the gold for the first time at this level for Serbija.

Serbia still had a chance with Zabic fighting for gold but she had already seen her teammates Majdov and Kukolj settle for silvers and so she got down to work. It didn’t take her long to dispatch Nunes with a textbook morote-seoi-nage. She’s athletic, strong, well-drilled and has the courage to really jump into the core of a fight. Her gold caps what has been a truly great 3rd day for Serbia, with a gold and two silver medals.

Berlikash dropped into the bronze medal contest and there she found some heavy responsibility as Kazakhstan had so far not made it to the rostrum in Baku. Two 7th places were taken by the men’s team earlier in the championship.

Berlikash faced the second Serbian of the group, Radic and although the scoreboard showed only penalties, it was an active match. The Kazakh did win the medal banishing Radic from the podium.

Ozturk (TUR) came through like a whirlwind in her quarter, throwing for ippon right to the semi-final but it was there that she met Nunes and had to concede, dropping into a bronze medal contest against teammate Akbulut.

Akbulut had beaten the up-and-coming Georgian Somkhishvili in the repechage final and wanted to stick to the feeling of winning; it’s a good one! However, it was short-lived as she lost out to her teammate on penalties in an unimpressive contest.