Unseeded World Championships Finalists: Female Division

There were four unseeded players who made it to the finals in the women’s division of the World Champions in Tashkent. In the U48kg division, Germany’s Katharina Menz was really a dark horse. At 31, she has been around for a long time but her best results were a European bronze and five IJF World Tour bronzes. She is proof that perseverance pays off.

In the U63kg division, Japan’s Megumi Horikawa was no well-known. She actually has three IJF World Tour gold medals but her first one was way back in 2012. Then, for the next 10 years, she failed to get another IJF World Tour gold. Until this year, when she won two. You could say this is a bumper year for her.

In the U70kg division, you had two Croatians in the final. One was the then-defending World Champion Barbara Matic, who is famous and the other was Lara Cvjetko, who is less so. But she fought brilliantly throughout the day, defeating big names such as Margaux Pinot of France and Sanne Van Dijke of the Netherlands.

In the U78kg division, China’s Ma Zhenzhao surprised everyone by making it to the final. She was a dark horse whose best results up to then was four bronze medals in the IJF World Tour. She had competed in the Tokyo Olympics and lost in the first round. This year, she competed Budapest Grand Slam and lost in the first round too. She also failed to medal in the Asian Championships. But now, she is World silver medalist.