The Portuguese judoka Patrícia Sampaio won this Sunday the bronze medal in the -78 kg category of the Grand Slam of Tashkent, in Uzbekistan, beating the Slovenian Metka Lobnik by waza-ari.
Patrícia Sampaio, 23, made her debut in the second round against young Uzbek Iriskhon Kurbanbaeva, 46th in the world ranking, winning by waza-ariafter 46 seconds of golden score.
In the quarter-finals, against the Japanese Rika Takayama, 24th in the hierarchy, the Portuguese judoka couldn’t avoid ippon of the Japanese, scored at the beginning of the second minute of the fight.
The Portuguese Olympian discussed access to the final block with the number three in the world, the German Anna-Maria Wagner, world champion in 2021 and bronze at the Tokyo2020 Olympic Games.
The confrontation was marked by balance and entered a period of ‘golden point’ without scores, close to three minutes of golden scorethe Portuguese got a ipponeliminating the German team for the second consecutive race.
In her last and final fight, against the young Slovenian Metka Lobnik, Patrícia Sampaio, 15th of ranking world, controlled and looked for the score throughout the regulation four minutes, but without success.
At the ‘golden point’, Patrícia Sampaio demonstrated her superiority, projecting her opponent and scoring waza-ariwhich guaranteed him the conquest of the bronze medal.
Patrícia Sampaio’s bronze joins the silver won on Friday by Catarina Costa, in the -48 kg category.