Julia Figueroa it’s back. And she’s back, if she ever left, in a big way. This Friday, the Cordoban judoka managed to win a gold medal again as a brilliant champion of the Abu Dhabi Grand Slamin the United Arab Emirates. It was not first since the Hungarian GS in 2019, almost three years ago.
With this victory, the judoka of the Valencia He manages to get rid of the bad taste in his mouth left by the last international event, the World Cup in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). The woman from Cordoba kept the honey on her lips. She was in contention for the medals in the semi-finals and the play-offs, but lost both times to finish fifth in the world championship and narrowly miss out on a metal.
Figueroa had a great day on the UAE tatami. The Cordoba coach, Sugoi Uriarte, came out again satisfied with the great performance of Julia’s experience. Precisely, the victory represents one more step on the way for the woman from Cordoba to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024. The Olympic ranking, in any case, still has almost two years of competition ahead of her. Of course, her classification is privileged.
clean road
Julia Figueroa He lived a full day in the Arabian Peninsula. The woman from Cordoba, as usual because she is in the top ten of the world ranking, was exempt from the first round. In the second, she had her first match in frame A of the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi with the Turkish Merve Azak. The Spanish had no problems to take the victory. She completed her fantastic first phase with a solid victory against Abiba Abuzhakynova. The Kazakh fell to the domain of the Cordovan.
After what happened in the World Cup, Figueroa entered the semifinals with the idea of getting even. And she made it. A sensational Ippon also gave her the victory against the Portuguese Catarina Costa. Julia took the pressure off conquering a metal she had narrowly missed in Tashkent just two weeks earlier. In the final, she faced the Italian Francesca Milani, who had caused the surprise against Scutto. The transalpine went ahead, but Figueroa hung the gold with another Ippon.
