The last of the last of 2 legends, Sandra Sanchez Jaime and Antonio Diaz, the Terliuga-Goranova duel, or even that between Brose and Crescenzo, the last 2 world champions. Today Friday is Kata, -50 kg, -55 kg, -60 kg and -67 kg day.
By Ludovic Mauchien
Photo : Kphotos
Kata F
She announced it months ago. The World Games are her last competition. At 40, Sandra Sanchez Jaime, Olympic champion and reigning double world champion, will retire.
Will she retire on a new win, on a 29th gold medal ? Obviously, Grace Lau, Sakura Kokumai (at home) and the Japanese Hikaru Ono do not hear it that way.
Kata M
The emperor is not there. The Shoguns are ready to draw. In the absence of Ryo Kiyuna, Damian Quintero, Kazumasa Moto and Gajuki Tozaki (on his land) smell good medalists. But Antonio Diaz, who also retires, could well play one last trick on his competitors. Although he is playing his 1st competition since April 2021, the Venezuelan double world champion (2010, 2012) is ready to win a… 30th world medal to end a magnificent career that began in… 1998 !
-50 kg
The category is very open even if the reigning double world champion, Miho Miyahara, is the favorite. Finalist in 2017, the Japanese however has not fought since Dubai last November.
Youngs Shara Hubrich and especially Yorgelis Salazar, 4 medals in 4 outings this year, including the title of Pan American champion in May, are in ambush.
-55 kg
Has the hour of the best 2 out of 3 struck ? But which of Anzhelica Terliuga or Ivet Goranova will win the 3rd round in a year.
The 1st, the Olympic final, it was the Bulgarian who won it. The 2nd, the final of the European Championships, is the Ukrainian. Will it be the final rematch in Birmingham? The Egyptian reigning world champion, Ahlam Youssef, who remains on 4 medals in 4 outings, is in the starts…
-60 kg
He is the reigning world champion, his 3rd title after 2010 and 2014. He has just won his 7th continental title in May at 36. He remains on 3 consecutive wins. The Brazilian Douglas Brose, winner of the World Games in… 2009, is the favorite of this 11th edition.
But the 2018 world champion and world No.1, Angelo Crescenzo, and of course, the Kazakh Darkhan Assadilov could thwart his plans.
-67 kg
The absence of Steven Da Costa opens doors. Xenos Dionysios, finalist of the European championships in May, and the Japanese Soichiro Nakano, Asian champion and 3rd of the Worlds, appear as serious contenders for the gold medal. A long-awaited duel of styles !
Schedule
Round robin eliminations at 10 a.m.
½ finals at 17:15 p.m.
Bronze at 5:30 p.m.
Finals at 6h40 p.m.
