Margaux Pinot back with gold at highest level

French Margaux Pinot is back with a golden medal at the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv and showed her fighting spirit, which last year enabled her to win the Paris Grand Slam, passing that test with flying colours. We also know that sometimes her fragility prevents her from completely expressing her capability when she has the capacity to win against the best athletes on the circuit, of which she is also one.

Recent lacklustre results have thus relegated her to a distant 17th place in the world. It's all relative of course, as many competitors would immediately sign up for a world top 20 entry, a significant Olympic qualifying position.

To return to Margaux Pinot, today in Tel Aviv we found the precise and efficient competitor we like, a competitor who knows how to execute the perfect movement at the right time. With this desire to win anchored in her body, it was therefore not surprising to find her in the final against Miriam Butkereit (GER). In the semi-final the latter stifled all the hopes of the Australian Aoife Coughlan, who had made a flawless run to that point.

The first left-handed seoi-nage of Pinot sent shivers around the venue but for no score. It gave a clear indication of what Pinot was looking for though, while Butkereit was trying to take advantage of her longer arms and legs to engage with a big harai-goshi. At the end of normal time, no-one had taken the advantage, but Butkereit was penalised twice already. The third penalty did not take too long to fall on Butkereit's shoulders to bring the medal to Pinot on a golden plate.

Martina Esposito (ITA) and Aoife Coughlan (AUS) faced off in the first match for a bronze medal. After one minute, right in the middle of the tatami, Aoife Coughlan, took a moment to properly control Esposito's upper body in a ne-waza situation, before taking her leg out to hold her opponent for ippon. After her medal earlier in the season during Grand Prix Portugal, this is the second medal in a grand slam for the Australian.

Gabriella Willems (BEL) and Elisavet Teltsidou (GRE) qualified for the second match for a bronze medal. 42 seconds of golden score were necessary for Willems to score ippon with o-soto-gari.