Cuban women
judokas bid farewell to 2012 on the podium
Ariel B. Coya
CUBA’s women judokas, trained by
Ronaldo Veitía, met their goal of ending the year on
a high note. They did so on the podium of the Tokyo
Grand Slam, finishing third by country with two
silver and two bronze medals.
Olympic champion Idalis Ortiz (+78
kg) was close to winning another title, but lost in
the final to Japanese Megumi Tachimoto – third in
the world ranking – who beat her in the semifinal of
the Paris Grand Slam in February and did so again
with a strangulation technique, leaving Ortiz, from
Artemisa province with the silver, as in 2010.
Maricet Espinosa (63kg) took another
step in her meteoric rise within the judo elite,
adding another bronze to the medals won by Dayaris
Mestre (48kg) and the summer double silver medalist
Yanet Bermoy (52kg), while Onix Cortés (70kg) and
Kaliema Antomachín (78kg) also contributed to the
Cuban team’s performance, both taking fifth place.
In this way, the Cuban women’s judo
team, without a representative in the 57kg category,
was only superceded in the medals table by Japan
(6-5-3) – with two complete teams – and Holland
(1-0-0), whose team managed to avoid losing to the
home judokas with Linda Bolder’s win in the 70kg
category.
