Miriam Butkereit finally takes gold in the IJF World Tour

In the U70kg category in Paris, the public once again had the opportunity to make their thunderous voices heard. In the end though the crowd was silenced by Miriam Butkereit who won 18 World Cup medals, 14 in the IJF World Tour, but for the first time she took the gold medal. What an event to do it.

Miriam Butkereit (GER), third in Portugal last week, gained at least one place by qualifying for the final and thus joining the Frenchwoman. Miriam Butkereit had also eliminated the double world champion, Barbara Matic (CRO) in the semi-final.

The final started with a high rhythm immediately, with both judoka attacking non-stop. Gahie was penalised with a first shido for breaking the grip. She still looked confident but so did Butkereit. When Gahie attacked with an o-soto-gari that was definitely not prepared well enough, the German judoka simply countered with an o-soto-gari of her own for ippon. Gahie did not win but she gained some confidence. Butkereit did win and that was her first gold medal in a grand slam.

In pool B, Marie-Eve Gahie was effectively cleaning up to sneak into the final. In the first round, a first aerial uchi-mata gave her the advantage against Fidan Ogel (TUR), an advantage that she capitalised on thanks to the same technique a little later in the contest.

In the second round, it was the Dutchwoman Kim Polling who bore the brunt of Gahie's fury. Two waza-ari again, the first from o-soto-gari and the second from ko-uchi-gari. There were two fights left to reach the final and Gahie negotiated them perfectly against Giovanna Scoccimarro (GER) and then Tais Pina (POR).

Giovanna Scoccimarro (GER) and Barbara Matic (CRO) met to win the first bronze medal. It took some time to decide the winner as both judoka neutralised the other perfectly. After almost 3 minutes of golden score, Matic executed a perfect sumi-gaeshi for ippon.

While we focused on Gahie's flawless rounds, Margaux Pinot (FRA) had a good run as well, qualifying for the bronze medal contest against Tais Pina (POR) but the contest did not really start well for Pinot. Despite a first shido given to Pina, it was the Portuguese judoka who scored first. The pressure was on Pinot's shoulders but this is maybe when she is at her best. She pushed and pushed, so Pina was penalised a second time, and then was thrown with a massive ippon-ko-uchi-gari for ippon. The bronze medal would be staying in France.