Tomita Wakaba takes heavyweight gold in Abu Dhabi

Japanese Tomita Wakaba became Junior world champion for Japan after a perfect day in Abu Dhabi. All four opponents were powerless to stop Junior Asian Championships silver medallist Tomito who ended every contest by ippon. The 18-year-old bested three-time Junior European Cup winner Camila Nogueira of Brazil in the +78kg final by an uchi-mata on the edge of the area with 48 seconds left.

In the first semi-final Nogueira squeezed past former European Youth Olympics Festival winner Yelyzaveta Kalanina (UKR) by a single shido given against the Ukrainian for passivity. In the second semi-final former Junior Asian Championships bronze medallist Han Mi Jin (KOR) was beaten by Tomita who moved on into the +78kg final. After Tomita went in front with a yuko score, Han was penalised with a shido for passivity and Tomita was not finished as she trapped her opponent with a modified kami-shiho-gatame hold to progress into the gold medal contest.

The first bronze medal was captured by Han (KOR) in golden score against Prague Junior European Cup bronze medallist Beata Pacut (POL). With the scoreboard untroubled after four minutes, the contest required added time and Pacut was penalised for passivity to give the contest to her opponent. The second bronze medal went to Kalanina who was marginally more positive than San Jose Junior Pan American Cup silver medallist Ellen Furtado (BRA). The Brazilian lacked any vigour and the Ukrainian, who weighed in at 104.3kg last night, claimed the contest and a place on the podium on shidos. Furtado was penalised three times with the last coming for passivity while Kalanina pitched an unblemished record.