Puerto Rican wins gold medal in Judo at the Grand Prix – Metro Puerto Rico

The judoka, María Pérez, won the first gold medal in a World Tour of the International Judo Federation (IJF) for Puerto Rico. The event was the Judo Grand Prix which was held in Austria.

The 34-year-old Puerto Rican defeated the British Kelly Pererson-Pollard in the -70 kg division with 5:34 on the clock. The victory was obtained by the two fouls of the rival and a waza-ari from Pérez, subtracting 27 seconds from the contest.

It should be noted that Pérez surpassed the representations of Brazil, Japan, the Netherlands and Germany to reach the final round.

The athlete has obtained several victories in various competitions. He took silver at the European Open in Madrid in 2022, claimed a bronze medal at the Budapest Grand Prix in the same year, took a bronze medal at the Tbilisi Grand Prix in 2019, won the Pan-American title at that year, among others.

On the other hand, 25-year-old Adrián Gandía Ginés finished his participation among the best 16 of the tournament, winning two fights by ippon and a defeat by wazari in the third round. He himself won the gold medal at the 2020 Pan American Judo Games.