Tsukasa Yoshida beats Smythe-Davis, Deguchi and the odds

The World Championships final for women U57kg was a surprise between Nekoda Smythe Davis of Great Britain and Tsukasa Yoshida of Japan. It was the first opportunity for a British woman to take the World title in 20 years. Her coach Kate Howey won the title in 1997.

Tsukasa Yoshida took the lead in the match and scored a wazari after a minute and took the second score after 80 seconds. She had her revenge after taking silver last year in Budapest against Dorjsuren. But also for Nekoda Davis this was again another step higher after the fifth place last year. Tsukasa Yoshida is the fourth World Champion of Japan U57kg: Kaori Matsumoto 2010-2015, Aiko Sato 2011, Nae Udaka 2014.

Christa Deguchi of Canada fought Theresa Stoll of Germany in the fight for bronze. Both never won a medal. Deguchi defeated Stolls twin-sister Amelie recently in Budapest but Theresa can handle tough battles like this. Deguchi has a great season and lost only once in advance of the worlds; in Budapest against Rafaela Silva who lost in today’s first round. Stoll has always been the number one choice in Germany for head coach Claudiu Pusa and Theresa made it all come true including a tough study. Twenty seconds for the end Stoll scored a wazari and suddenly the pressure was at Deguchi but she came back quickly with o-uchi-gari for wazari. Super comeback for Deguchi in a nailbiting medal contest leading to golden score. Stoll got two penalties and Deguchi determined the pace from then. She decided the match by oseikomi and won bronze for Canada. The ninth for Canada in history, the first ever for a woman.

Sumiya Dorjsuren was disappointed that she had to leave her red backpatch for at least a year. With bronze in 2018 after she defeated Kwon You Jeong was not her goal. Although Dorjsuren started strong in the first quarter of the contest, Kwon recovered and kept the null against the World Champion in regular time. But after more than six minutes Dorjsuren launched a ura-nage for ippon and took the bronze.

The first semi final Sumiya Dorjsuren fought Nekoda Davis. The Briton had this time surprised the World Champion after four losses. A mistake by Dorjsuren in a very equal contest in the golden score. But Davis took advantage of one small opportunity to choke the Mongolian and the groundwork helped her through the final.

The second semi final was for Tsukasa Yoshida against Christa Deguchi of Canada with a trademark uchimata and first serious attack. Deguchi had two penalties on her name and in the golden score it was Yoshida who progressed to the final and make the dream come true.

Kwon defeated Nora Gjakova in the repechage final, Gjakova finished seventh today. Same for Helene Receveaux who lost to Theresa Stoll in that first repechage contest.