Bermoy opens the way

Ariel B. Coya, Special correspondent
(Photo: RICARDO LÓPEZ HEVIA, ENVIADO ESPECIAL)

LONDON.— Cuba’s first medal in the London Summer Olympics, just like four years ago in Beijing 2008, was once again won by Yanet Bermoy, the slight judoka from Cienfuegos. Another silver, although this time in a different weight division (52 kg), in which she only ceded to North Korea’s An Kum Ae, also a runner-up in China.

"I’m here to dispute the title," she had said just days before the competition and with this conviction approached the tatami at the ExCel Center where she eliminated rivals one after another, second-ranked Bundmaa Munkhbaatar from Mongolia; Luxembourg’s Marie Muller by wazari; and also via this route, her last victim, Belgian Ilse Heylen, who won the bronze in Athens 2004.

An Kum Ae, a 32-year-old veteran, was also unstoppable, overcoming the world co-champion from Japan, Misato Nakamura; France’s Priscilla Gneto and Italian Rosalba Forciniti, who went on to win the bronze medal. Unstoppable… until the finals, when the two co-champions came face to face in a duel that was finally settled in overtime, during which An surprising Yanet with a leg sweep.

Thus Bermoy was left with the silver and lamented not winning the title she has longed for, "I had prepared myself for this, I could have kept going, but the Korean was very hard. Very difficult. I wanted to beat her with strategy, since I’ve never thrown her. When I competed against her in Germany this year (the Grand Prix in Düsseldorf), I won by two shido and I think I needed to give a little more. I shouldn’t have left myself open," she said after the fight.

She did acknowledge feeling proud to be Cuba’s first medalist and of winning a medal in London, "since it was a challenge I took on, and in the end, I accomplished it."