The medal was missing, but Asya Tavano can be considered extremely satisfied with his first experience at a Senior World Championship in judo. The young Friulian made an exciting journey in Pool A of the categoria +78 kg on the tatami of the ABHA Arena in Doha (in Qatar), surprisingly reaching the quarterfinals and then ranking in seventh position overall.
The twenty-year-old Italian, already European bronze in 2022 in Sofia, made her debut with a convincing victory over Taiwanese Jia Wen Tsai by ippon in 3’03” thus hitting the minimum goal of the day considering the outcome of the draw. In fact, waiting for her in the second round was the No. 1 in the ranking and outgoing world champion Romane Dickoan insurmountable obstacle on paper.
However, the 23-year-old Frenchwoman was surprised about thirty seconds before the end of regulation time by the projection of Tavano, who landed a waza-ari which proved to be decisive for the victory over the great favorite for the title. In the round of 16, the judoka from Udine born in 2002 then confirmed her great form, beating the Kazakh Kamila Berlikash by ippon in 1’55” and officially entering the top eight of the world championship.
Judo, 2023 World Championships: Alice Bellandi wins a revenge bronze in the -78 kg and Italy sets a record!
Asya then had to give way to the strong Chinese Xu Shiyan in the Pool final for waza-ari-awasete-ippon after 1’34” of extremely tactical and balanced combat. Nothing to do even in the repechage for our bearer, clear defeat by ippon by the outgoing Brazilian vice-world champion Beatriz Souza. With today’s result, Tavano takes home 260 points in the five-circle qualifying ranking making an important step forward towards the Olympic pass for Paris 2024 in heavyweights.
Photo: IJF
2023-05-13 16:09:01
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