Judoka Sarah Menezes won the bronze medal in the lightweight category (- 48kg) at the European Judo Circuit, which is being held in Budapest, Hungary.
The results in the European Circuit will be used by the Brazilian Judo Confederation to identify the athletes who will represent the country in the categories classified for the Games. Last week, Sarah took seventh place in the Paris Super World Cup.
To reach the bronze medal, Sarah had six fights. In the first, she beat Frenchwoman Aurore Climence, runner-up in the Paris World Cup Super Cup in 2007, by ippon. Then, she beat Spain's Vanessa Arenas by yuko.
In the third fight, Sarah was defeated by Romanian Alexandra Dumitru by ippon. In the repechage, she started by beating Rada Abdrakhmano, from Russia, by ippon and then beat the Portuguese Ana Hormigo by wazari.
In the bronze medal match, she beat Japan's Mayumi Takara by koka. Takara's CV has important achievements such as gold in the 2005 Moscow Super World Cup and silver in the traditional 2007 Jigoro Kano Cup.
“Once again I say that I am sure I could do better. Still, it's a very good result. I push myself a lot and I never think about losing and I always want to be the best. I did all my fights against strong opponents and I felt that I will need to work more on my bodybuilding when I return to Brazil”, says Sarah. “I hope that my medal opens the door and gives strength to the entire team.”
Sarah Menezes' main international achievement was the bronze medal at the Belo Horizonte World Cup in 2007. The athlete also holds the titles of seven-time Brazilian junior champion and South American senior champion.
Lightweight Érika Miranda, qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games, ended up in ninth place in Hungary. In the repechage, the athlete lost by wazari to Englishwoman Sophie Johnstone and ended her participation. Ketleyn Quadros, who placed fifth in the Paris Super World Cup, also finished ninth. In the repechage, Ketleyn beat Englishwoman Faith Pitman by ippon, but in the next fight she ended up defeated by Belgian Julie Baeyens by Wazari and took ninth place.
For men, the World Cup stage was held in Leonding, Austria. Two-time world champion João Derly was unable to advance much. Despite winning his debut with an ippon over Jozef Krnac, from Slovakia, Derly lost in his next fight to Italian Nicola Casale and abandoned the competition in the repechage. The Brazilian felt pain in his shoulder and preferred not to continue in the competition.
The lightweight Denílson Lourenço, who beat the Belarusian Siarhei Novikau by ippon in the first fight, fell to the Ukrainian Georgiy Zantaraya by yuko in the repechage and came ninth. Another athlete who also ended up in the same position was young Victor Penalber (-73kg). Unable to avoid defeat to the Italian Marco Maddaloni by wazari, he fell in the repechage.
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