RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Ketelyn Nascimento (57kg), Ketleyn Quadros (63kg) and Maria Suelen Altheman (+78kg), Gabriela Chibana (48kg) and Maria Portela (70kg) climbed the podium on Saturday in Bratislava, Slovakia. Of the seven weight categories in dispute (All Female), Brazil was represented in six. Only the 78kg category contestant, Mayra Aguiar, lacked a national fighter.
Brazil and Japan ended the competition with three gold medals, but the Asian delegation took the highest ranking by adding two silver and one bronze medals, while the Brazilians took two bronze medals.
In the 57 kilos category, Ketelyn Nascimento won by defeating Hungarian Ibolya Siroki, Russian Katerina Dotcenko, Hungarian Brigitta Varga and French Maryline Louis Sidney in the final, by achieving a waza-ari.
In the 63kg category, Ketleyn Quadros, bronze in Beijing-2008, eliminated the Dane Helena Christensen, the Swiss Carina Hildbrand and the Romanian Stefania Adelina. For the gold, she achieved an ippon over Japanese Momo Tatsukawa.
In the over 78 kilos category, Maria Suelen Altheman beat Polish Wiktoria Lis, Japanese Hiraku Kodama and French Lea Fontaine (ippon) to come in first place.
Gabriela Chibana (48kg) took the bronze when she defeated Italy’s Elisa Adrasti and Belgium’s Ellen Salens. She lost in the semi-final to Japan’s Aoi Ogura, but took bronze when she beat Serbia’s Andrea Stojadinov.
In the 70kg category, Maria Portela beat the Russian Ksenia Zadvornova and the French Melissa Heleine, but lost to the Japanese Utane Sugiyama in the semi-finals. In the bronze match she beat Brazil’s Ellen Santana, with whom she is competing for a spot in Tokyo.
In Oberwart, Austria, the men’s team, comprising nine judokas, did not enjoy the same success. In the 73 kilos category, Eduardo Katsuhiro was the only one to dispute a medal. He beat Javier Ortiz Cabello from Spain and Magomedkarin Piduriev from Russia, but lost to Alexander Bernd Gabler from Germany.
In the repechage, Katsuhiro defeated Casaque Zhanbolat Bagtbergenov for the bronze medal but lost to Swiss Timo Allemann, who had eliminated another Brazilian, Charles Chibana, in the second fight.
Eric Takabatake (60 kilos) won two fights, lost one and lost in the repechage, while Felipe Kitadai lost in the first fight. In the 66kg category, Daniel Cargnin lost in the first fight. The Oberwart Open continues this Sunday with four other categories: 81kg, 90kg, 100kg and +100kg.