Lytvynenko beats Sampaio in Abu Dhabi final

Three minutes into golden score, Patricia Sampaio went for seoi-otoshi and did not have the legs to finish it. Yelyzaveta Lytvynenko countered, the waza-ari went up, and the U78kg final of the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi ended after almost seven minutes with the world champion on top. It was her first gold with the red backpatch on home soil for the United Arab Emirates, and it came against the one opponent in the draw ranked close enough to make it a real final.

The scoreboard had told its own story before the throw. After two minutes of golden score Sampaio, the Olympic bronze medallist from Portugal and world number five, carried two penalties against one for Lytvynenko, ranked second in the world. Both had reached the Mubadala Arena final the long way. Lytvynenko led Pool A past Ksenia Zadvornova of Russia, Karol Gimenes of Brazil and, in the semi final, Emma Reid of Great Britain. Sampaio topped Pool C through Dandara Camillo of Brazil, Eliza Wroblewska of Poland and Yael van Heemst of the Netherlands.

Why the gold carried more weight than usual

Lytvynenko arrived in Abu Dhabi with hardly any rest. After winning the world title in Baku she went straight into a training camp there, and the final day of a three day Grand Slam is not where a champion wants to find out how much is left. She afterwards praised Sampaio’s technical quality and spoke of what the gold means for the national team, which is the point: the Ukrainian born judoka is now the face of Emirati judo, and this was the first time she delivered a title in front of that public.

Two bronzes, two completely different endings

Van Heemst, ranked seventeenth, had lost her semi final to Sampaio and then found the finish that had eluded her all day: a last moment attack on Gimenes as the four minutes ran out, which denied the Brazilian golden score and sent the Dutchwoman up the rankings. Reid, ranked thirteenth, went the other way. Nothing was scored in four minutes against Metka Lobnik, and about a minute into golden score the Briton took the Slovenian to the floor and finished with juji-gatame for ippon. Lobnik, sixth in the world coming in, had been put out of the main draw by van Heemst, fought back through the repechage and finished fifth. The division was deep enough that the sixth ranked woman went home without a medal, which says more about U78kg right now than any single result.

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