For Barbara Matic this Paris Grand Slam was an interesting and above all important test. World champion in Budapest in June, the Croatian skipped the Zagreb Grand Prix, in her own country, in order to better prepare for the meeting in Paris. Dressed for the first time on the international circuit in her beautiful red bib, she approached the competition with seriousness and concentration, to reach the final against the Japanese Saki Niizoe.
Barbara Matic said, “I was feeling great but in the final something weird happened. We went into ne-waza, she strangled me and I started to feel dizzy. It is ok now, though, she was stronger today.”
After a rather balanced start to the final, even if Matic showed some small signs of imbalance, it was finally on the ground, once again that Niizoe found the solution by pinning Matic already locked in by a potential shime-waza from the Japanese judoka. And that makes six gold medals for Japan already.
After a long golden score and a close match, Yoko Ono won a bronze medal. At the same time, Hilde Jager, fifth in Zagreb a few weeks ago, concluded her weekend with a bronze medal after having defeated Ellen Santana (BRA).