The Austrian women definitely pleased their home fans as they took home 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal. Austrian Michaela Polleres in -70 kg was the first to win the gold medal. As the number one seed in her category, she lived up to the expectations by making it to the final winning all her fights with Ippon. This was Michi’s first competition of the year and another gold medal in her pocket and we cannot wait to see the podiums she will reach this year.
Her teammate Bernadette Graf in -78 kg won the second gold medal for Austria and could give the audience another Austrian national anthem. In the final, she had to fight former World Champion and Olympic Medalist Mayra Aguiar from Brazil, who she defeated and ended the day on a high. An amazing result which shows that she really belongs in this category!
Also, Magdalena Krssakova made it to the final in -63 kg. She made it to the final in brilliant style by winning all of her matches with Ippon however in the final her opponent was too strong and she had to settle with the silver medal. But this is just the beginning of the year for her!
Another home nation favorite was Sabrina Filzmoser in -57 kg. The 38-year-old showed a great day of judo in the preliminaries but at the end of the day, she had to settle for the fifth place after losing out to the current Olympic Champion of Brazil.
Mercedesz Szigetvari of Hungary, the current Junior European Champion in -78kg, made it to the bronze medal match and lost out but showed that she can also mix it with the strong seniors.
Katinka Szabo of Hungary, who recently was on the podium in Sofia, managed to finish her day on a 7th place. However, we know that more will come for her. Her teammate youngster Kitti Kovacs in -57 kg had a good day but had to settle for 7th as well. Also, Hannah Martin of the United States of America ended her day in a 7th place.
Everyone picked up some valuable experience and furthermore, also more points towards Tokyo 2020.
