Sanne Van Dijke gears up with gold U78kg

Dutch Olympian Sanne Van Dijke booked her first victory since her gold at the Grand Slam in Tokyo. At the Zagreb Grand Prix she fought one category higher U78kg and still achieved to be the best of the pack. It was her first gold medal in the Croatian capital and second medal ever, but her first was back in 2019.

The opening round of the U78kg category at the Zagreb Grand Prix was a critical test for the top seed, Croatia’s Petrunjela Pavic, but even more so for world number 6 in the -70kg division, Sanne Van Dijke (NED), who was competing in this weight class for the first time. Van Dijke adapted quickly, winning her first match against Pavic with a decisive shime-waza, scoring ippon in just one and a half minutes.

With strong momentum, Van Dijke defeated Lea Schmid (GER) in the next round, scoring a waza-ari with an o-uchi-gari and finishing the match with an ippon from immobilisation. She continued her flawless performance with two seoi-otoshi against Coralie Godbout (CAN), earning her place in the final.

Lieke Derks (NED) was also performing well, raising the possibility of an all-Dutch final. However, Croatia’s Karla Prodan dashed those hopes by surprising Derks in the semi-final, securing a spot in the final and ensuring another medal for the host country.

In the gold medal contest, both Van Dijke and Prodan were evenly matched, with regular time ending in a single shido for each. The crowd rallied behind Prodan, hoping for a Croatian gold. In the golden score, both judoka received another penalty. Ultimately, Prodan’s use of an illegal kawazu-gake to counter Van Dijke resulted in her third penalty, handing the gold to Van Dijke.

In the first bronze medal match, Lieke Derks (NED) secured victory over Lea Schmid (GER) by scoring a waza-ari with an o-soto-gari, which she followed up with another to claim the bronze. The second bronze medal went to Coralie Godbout (CAN) after Liz Ngelebeya (FRA) was disqualified for diving, allowing Godbout to complete the podium.