The last day of the Judo World Cup ended without surprises. Current world champions Luciano Corrêa, from Brazil, and Teddy Riner, from France, confirmed their favoritism and won the gold medals in the light heavyweight and heavyweight categories, respectively.
This is the third time that Luciano Corrêa has won first place in a World Cup. Champion of the Brazilian edition last year, the athlete also won the gold medal at the Lisbon World Cup in 2006.
The title, however, once again came in a painful way, against old acquaintance Leonardo Leite, who in the semi beat the French 2001 world champion, Frédéric Demontfaucon. The athlete from Rio was better than the team's starter at the beginning and managed two yukos.
Despite this, once again Corrêa counted on his great physical preparation to overcome an adverse result and win the fight. He forced three punishments from his opponent and took the gold in the end. “I had to change strategy and go on the attack. And when I attacked, I took another hit. So, I started to force the punishment. It's always like this, painful. At last year's World Cup and in Cairo, in 2005 (when I won bronze), I believed until the end and won the medal”, says the native of Brasilia.
In the semi-final, the Minas Tênis athlete faced Santos player Leandro Gonçalves, from the under-23 team. The world champion found many difficulties with his opponent's left grip. However, he increased the pace of the fight towards the end, as he often does, and forced two punishments on his rival judoka to win the fight.
In the heavyweight category, Teddy Riner did not enter the mat for the semifinal match. He was supposed to face João Gabriel Schlittler, but the Brazilian was left out of the tournament due to an injury he suffered in his right knee in his first fight of the day, in the defeat to Italian Paolo Bianchessi.
His opponent in the decision was Schlittler's reserve, Walter Santos, who beat Bianchessi in the semi-final with a beautiful ippon. After a fierce fight, they went for the golden score. That's when Riner got a wazari to take first place.
“Walter is very strong and difficult to move, in addition to having a very intense fighting rhythm. I would have liked to have fought against the other Brazilian (João Gabriel), but it was a good competition. I didn’t know Walter and he surprised me”, praised the Frenchman.
The triumph in Belo Horizonte represented the Frenchman's second World Cup gold of the year. In February, he also won gold at the Paris Tournament, the main event in the category.
Demontfaucon and Leandro Gonçalves won the bronze medal in the light heavyweight division. In the weight above 100kg, Bianchessi and João Gabriel came in third place.
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