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Alice Bellandi brought new joy to Italy, winning the gold medal in the women’s -78kg at the Judo Grand Slam underway in Abu Dhabi. The Lombard judoka beat the French Posvite in the final.
Judo, Bellandi triumphs at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam: gold in the women’s -78kg
Alice Bellandi gave Italy the third gold medal in the Judo Grand Slam underway in Abu Dhabi. The Lombard judoka triumphed today in the women’s -78kg final, beating the French Fanny Posvite. The Italian had previously also managed to beat the other transalpine Chloe Buttigieg, the Guinean Marie Branser and the Portuguese Patricia Sampaio. Bellandi consequently collected the fourth Grand Slam of his career, the second overall in 2023. Last February, the Italian also won the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv, beating the French Madeleine Malonga in the final. Thanks to this result, Bellandi also regained the lead in the women’s -78kg ranking, overtaking the Israeli Inbar Lanir.
The women’s head coach Francesco Bruyere, as reported by the official FIJLKAM website, expressed himself as follows on the performance offered by Bellandi: “Despite the presence of some of the strongest athletes in the world, Alice’s race was on another level. Bellandi never had any difficulty in the preliminary phase, she won the matches with her usual class. Alice has finally also taken advantage of ground fighting, which she is very skilled at. Subsequently, she managed the final very well with the difficult French team without taking risks and bringing home the result with superiority. As always, I offer endless compliments to the queen of the category.”
Judo, fifth place in the women’s +78kg for the Italian Erica Simonetti
In the women’s +78kg, the young Erica Simonetti ranked fifth. The class of 2002 only reached the semifinals, still achieving the best career placement at Grand Slam level. The Italian managed to beat Saudi Al Qahtani, Chinese Su Xin and Bosnian Larisa Ceric in a series. Simonetti, however, paid the price for the knockouts against the Kazakh Kamilla Berlikash and the French Lea Fontaine. However, the path of Asya Tavano was less happy, as after beating the Kazakh Nazgul Maratova she was overtaken by Fontaine as well as by the Portuguese Rochele Nunes.
Looking at the other matches of this day, in the men’s -100kg Enrico Bergamelli and Jean Carletti brought home a victory. The former debuted with a success against Mukhamed-Ali Mataev, but suffered a defeat against Zelimkhan Bashaev. The second instead managed to beat the Cypriot Georgios Kroussaniotakis, but found an immediate knockout against the Canadian Shady Elnahas. Similar story for Sylvain Lorenzo Agro, who ended the day with a victory and a defeat. In the +100kg the Italian defeated the Romanian Mircea Croitoru, paying for the second match with Inal Tasoev.
Judo, Italy looks with confidence to the European Championships scheduled in Montpellier from 3 to 5 November
Only disappointment however for Christian Parlati, eliminated in the first round of the men’s -90kg by the South Korean Sungho Lee. A certainly unexpected result for the blue, who was seeded number one in the draw. However, Giorgia Stangherlin and Kwajdo Anani also found defeat on their debut, eliminated respectively in the women’s -78kg and men’s +100kg. In any case, Italy enjoys its third overall success at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, which allows the Italian team to overtake Canada in terms of victories.
Only two days ago, Alice Scutto and Odette Giuffrida gave Italy their first joys in the women’s -48kg and -52kg respectively. The outcome is therefore really positive for our national team, which can look forward to the next European Judo Championships scheduled for France with confidence. Over the weekend from 3 to 5 November, male and female athletes from the old continent will compete in Montpellier to win the European titles.
2023-10-26 15:49:25
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