Judoka Anna-Maria Wagner (25) won a historic gold medal at the World Championships in Budapest and was crowned the first German female world champion in 28 years. The Ravensburger defeated the French world number one Madeleine Malonga in the final of the class up to 78 kg on Friday.
“This is an amazing story,” said Daniel Keller, President of the German Judo Association (DJB), the SID: “Judo Germany is in a state of excitement, it hits like a bomb. Anna-Maria Wagner is the strongest participant in the DJB started, she beat three former world champions here and thus proved her top form. “
The last time Johanna Hagn (class +78) won World Cup gold for Germany in 1993, one title is even further behind in Wagner’s weight class: Barbara Claßen triumphed in 1982. Alexander Wieczerzak won the last German men’s World Cup title in 2017 .
With her success in Budapest, Wagner also prevailed in the internal duel for the Olympic ticket for Tokyo against her teammate Luise Malzahn, who was eliminated in the quarter-finals. As third in the world ranking, Wagner already had better cards than Malzahn (10th) due to its better starting position in the ranking. In Japan there is only one starter per nation in each weight class.
First, Wagner had mastered her opening hurdle Erdenet-Od Batbayar (Mongolia) and then fought against Antonia Schmelewa (Russian Judo Association) in the quarter-finals. There she beat Marhinde Verkerk (Netherlands) before she also got the upper hand against world number five Mami Umeki.
Judo: Malzahn loses in the quarterfinals
Malzahn (Halle / Saale) lost after victories against Lucia Cantero (Argentina) and Karen Leon (Venezuela) in the quarter-finals against Umeki. In the first round of hope she missed her last chance for bronze by losing to Verkerk. Malzahn, third in the 2017 World Cup, had to spend two weeks in Georgian hotel quarantine in the spring after suffering from corona.
In the class up to 100 kg, the former vice world champion Karl-Richard Frey (Leverkusen) failed in the second round at the Serbian Bojan Dosen after his opening win against Mikita Swirid (Belarus).
On Tuesday, Theresa Stoll (Großhadern) won the only medal for the German Judo Association (DJB) in Budapest in the class up to 57 kg. The 25-year-old won her battle for third place against the dethroned world champion Christa Deguchi (Canada).
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