The second day of competition at the Tbilisi Grand Prix saw the middleweights take to the tatami. Two men’s (-73kg and -81kg) and two women’s (-63kg and -70kg) weight categories were the focus of attention at Tbilisi’s New Sports Palace. Returning to defend her title in the -63kg category was world number three Kathrin UNTERWURZACHER (AUT) who was number one seed. But it was Unterwurzacher’s team mate 23-year old Magdalena KRSSAKOVA (AUT) who in her first appearance in an IJF Grand Prix final snatched gold for Austria.
Unterwurzacher had lost out in her semi final with Edwige GWEND (ITA) and so it was the number two seeded Italian who faced Krssakova in the final. Having disposed of one Austrian, a second proved too much for Gwend and it was a combative Krssakova who unsettled and disrupted Gwend’s match plan. The pair went into golden score where Krssakova began to look more threatening, coming up with waza ari after a little over a minute with a tani otoshi counter to Gwend’s attempted harai goshi.
Krssakova’s gold medal winning performance is a strong indication that things are coming together. The upcoming European championships will be a huge test for her but it is important the she focuses not only on results (like today) but more importantly on the quality of her overall performance, especially against quality opposition. Krssakova should after this effort today look to reproduce the kind of difficult, probing, aggressive style that she presented here in Tbilisi. If she can do this again and again there seems little doubt that she will be able to mix it with the best of the category.
Krssakova began her day with a first round contest against Daniela KAZANOI (BLR). It was the Belarussian who took the lead when after a little over two minutes Kazanoi scored with a left sided morote seoi nage for waza ari. It was only in the last minute that Krssakova was able to come up with a left tai otoshi to level the scores. The contest went into golden score where after 40 seconds Krssakova launched a powerful left ko soto gake, right o soto gari combination that brought Kazanoi crashing to her back for ippon. This put Krssakova into the quarter final where she faced Kamila BADUROVA (RUS) whom after a minute and a half she threw with o soto gari for ippon. In the semi final Krssakova’s opponent was 20-year old Andreja LESKI (SLO) who a couple of weeks ago had taken a silver medal at the Baku Grand Slam. But Krssakova proved a little too difficult for Leski to handle and after a little over half the contest, the Austrian scored waza ari with left ko soto gake which proved sufficient to put her in the final.
Unterwurzacher had lost out in her semi final with Edwige GWEND (ITA) and so it was the number two seeded Italian who faced Krssakova in the final. Having disposed of one Austrian, a second proved too much for Gwend and it was a combative Krssakova who unsettled and disrupted Gwend’s match plan. The pair went into golden score where Krssakova began to look more threatening, coming up with waza ari after a little over a minute with a tani otoshi counter to Gwend’s attempted harai goshi.
Krssakova’s gold medal winning performance is a strong indication that things are coming together. The upcoming European championships will be a huge test for her but it is important the she focuses not only on results (like today) but more importantly on the quality of her overall performance, especially against quality opposition. Krssakova should after this effort today look to reproduce the kind of difficult, probing, aggressive style that she presented here in Tbilisi. If she can do this again and again there seems little doubt that she will be able to mix it with the best of the category.
