Romane Dicko prolongs heavyweight title in Tel Aviv

Romane Dicko of France showed again what a great talent she is. She captured the gold medal at the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv without worry, right through the eliminatory phases to infiltrate the final of the +78kg category. It is her fourth Grand Slam victory and Dicko has become a really safe bet for the French delegation.

She bagged a silver medal in Paris less than two weeks ago, she only saw the gold slip away from her fingers because of a small error against the Japanese judoka. After eliminating Julia Tolofua in the semi-finals, in a Franco-French match, she was opposed by Beatriz Souza (BRA) in the final. It meant a successful defense of last year’s title in Tel Aviv.

The two athletes played a well balanced final until the last moments, Beatriz Souza offering a good opposition to the French champion. The most important part for her was not to make any mistakes, like in Paris two weeks ago and she didn't. Waiting patiently, she overturned Souza to pin her down with a ushiro-kesa-gatame for ippon. This time the medal is made out of gold.

The Israeli public had one last chance to support a national athlete for a medal with Raz Hershko (ISR) who qualified for the bronze medal match against the third-placed athlete in Portugal a few weeks ago, Adiyasuren Amarsaikhan (MGL). The match was long including the  golden score period but Raz Hershko was finally able to enjoy winning the medal in front of her public, who gave her a massive round of applause.

Nazgul Maratova (KAZ) and Julia Tolofua (FRA) battled for the second bronze medal. After rolling her opponent, Julia Tolofua concluded with an immobilisation to win her fourth medal in a grand slam.