On Day 1, only two American players won their first match, Jacob Yang in the -66kg division and Maria Celia Laborde in the -48kg division. Jonathan Yang put in a spirited fight against his Israeli opponent in the -60kg division but lost in the end.
Men’s -60kg Division
In Pool B, Jonathan Yang had a bye in the first round and faced Izhak Ashpiz (ISR) in the second round. In an all-action contest, was down by two yukos from kosoto-gake but bounced back with a yuko of his own from ura-nage before succumbing to a massive ogoshi by Ashipiz which had Yang bridging on his head. Ippon was given. In Pool D, David Terao also had a bye in the first round but last to Ariel Shulman in the second round by hansoku-make after receiving three shidos for passivity.
Women’s -48kg Division
In Pool A, Anat Tsyrlin lost by a pair of yukos from ouchi-gari and then kouchi-gari. In Pool C, Maria Celia Laborde defeated Wiktoria Slazok (POL) in the first round after the Polish player got hansoku-make for her third penalty, for passivity, in Golden Score. This brought Laborde up against Konul Aliyeva (AZE) but here, it was Laborde’s turn to lose by hansoku-make, after getting two shidos for passivity and a third one for grabbing the legs.
Men’s -66kg Division
Jacob Yang in Pool B won his first match, against Joshua Katz (AUS) using morote-seoi-nage twice, to score waza-ari and yuko before the match was over. He lost his next match against David Garcia Torne (ESP) who threw him with a spinning uchimata for yuko, a Mollaei-style reverse kata-guruma for yuko and a drop sode for waza-ari. In Pool C, Ari Berliner lost his first-round match against Georgios Balarjishvili (CYP) who threw him with a reverse tani-otoshi for yuko and then a regular tani-otoshi for another yuko.
Women’s -52kg Division
In Pool A, Emily Sway got a bye in the first round but lost to Ayumi Leiva Sanchez (ESP) who threw her with osoto-gari in less than 30 seconds.
Women’s -57kg Division
In Pool C, Mariah Holgun got a bye in the first round and lost to Pihla Matikainen (FIN) by hansoku-make after receiving her third penalty (for a false attack) in Golden Score.
(Photo courtesy of IJF)
Blog posts
Distria Krasniqi (KOS) was the queen of the -52's in Zagreb. She won all her matches by ippon, There was no one even close to her.
Team USA got a total of 3 golds, 9 silvers and 5 bronzes. The three gold medalists were Christoper Velazco at -60kg, Daniel Liubimovski at -100kg and Mariah Holguin at -57kg.
An overview of the winners from Day 3 of the Zagreb Grand Prix, including the performance of American players.