Slovenian judoka Nika Koren finished fifth at the Grand Slam in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in the under-70 kg category. In the bronze medal contest, she was defeated by France’s Clemence Eme, who had already claimed third place at this year’s Grand Slam in Tashkent.

Koren and Eme produced several fine actions during regular time, but the contest was decided in golden score, where the French judoka won by ippon.

At the start of the competition, luck was on the side of the 22-year-old from Ljubljana, as her opening opponent, Great Britain’s Rachel Hawkes, did not step onto the tatami. Koren therefore advanced directly to the quarter-final.

There she faced the aggressive Italian Irene Pedrotti, but Koren, a protégé of Luka Kuralt, threw her for yuko early in the contest. Koren, who was accompanied in Dushanbe by Marko Prodan, then defended skilfully until the end, having also scored another successful throw earlier in the bout.

In the semi-final, Austria’s Michaela Polleres, an Olympic medallist from Tokyo 2021 and Paris 2024, proved too strong. After 45 seconds, the Austrian capitalised on a weaker attack by the Bežigrad competitor. When Koren opened up completely later in the contest, her opponent surprised her with an ippon with one minute and ten seconds remaining.

Koren will also compete at the Grand Slam in Kazakhstan next week.

Source of text: STA