Double joy for Lucy Renshall in Antalya

British judoka Lucy Renshall was the second in British history to defend a Grand Slam title with success. In 2016 and 2017 Alice Schlesinger won the Grand Slam in Baku, this time Renshall qualified again for the final at the Grand Slam in Antalya after eliminating the Canadian Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard in the semi-final. Also a winner in Abu Dhabi and Baku last year, Renshall is a real metronome on the international circuit.

To challenge her for gold, she found the youth and ardor of Szofi Ozbas (HUN), who discreetly climbs the ladder of international results, since for the first time in her young career she entered the final of a grand slam, having won two bronze medals previously.

After one minute and forty seconds, Renshall imposed her style with a koshi-waza attack, from which Ozbas was close to escaping but not enough to avoid a first waza-ari. Despite the pressure she put on her opponent's shoulder the Hungarian athlete could not score back and the victory went to Lucy Renshall for the second time in a row in Antalya.

The 2019 world silver medallist, Barbara Timo (POR) faced Anriquelis Barrios (VEN), already the holder of four grand slam medals, for a place on the podium. With a waza-ari scored at the beginning of the match, Barbara Timo thought that it would be enough to win but just before the end, Barrios also scored. Time for golden score! Eventually Barbara Timo secured the victory to step on the podium.

The match between Magdalena Krssakova (AUT) and Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (CAN) decided who would complete the podium. With a superb seoi-nage movement, Beauchemin-Pinard took a strong lead to control the match but when everything seemed to be going in one direction only, Magdalena Krssakova executed a powerful o-soto-gari that ruined all Beauchemin-Pinard's efforts. This is the second bronze medal in a grand slam for the Austrian athlete, who was coached by former Olympic champion Yvonne Boenisch, and the first medal of the Austrian delegation here in Antalya.