Half-Middleweight (≤63 kilograms), Women

The gold in the women’s under 63kg division remained in Slovenia as London 2012 gold medalist Urška Žolnir was succeeded as champion by her compatriot, the top-seeded Tina Trstenjak. Formerly part of Yugoslavia, this small country had won just one women’s Olympic gold medal prior to 2016, and Trstenjak’s gold doubled the tally with both golds being won in the same sport and event.

Although not high in the official ranking list, fighting in front of her home crowd, Brazil’s Mariana Silva started as one of the favorites. However, the 2016 Pan American Games gold medalist was defeated in the semi-final by Trstenjak who scored an Ippon (full point) with a Tate-shiho-gatam (Straight four-corner hold) 3:39 min into the match. In the final, the Slovenian faced second seed Clarisse Agbegnenou from France. The two top athletes in this division had already met in the finals of the European and World Championships with Trstenjak winning the most recent bout. In the Rio final, the 25-year-old overpowered the younger Frenchwoman, with Togolese roots, with an Ippon after only 1:45 min, applying a Kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame (Modified top four-corner hold) to clinch the gold.

Home favorite Silva also missed her second chance to win a medal, losing the bronze medal match against Netherlands’ Anicka Van Emden by Yuko (Advantage). For the second bronze medal, third-seeded Miku Tashiro from Japan faced Israel’s fourth-seeded Yarden Gerbi. Gerbi’s victory by Waza-ari gave Israel its first medal in the Rio Games and made this event the first without a medal for Japan.