Metka Lobnik delivered another Slovenian success at the Qingdao Grand Prix, winning her seventh medal on the World Judo Tour. After taking third place at this year’s Grand Prix in Linz, the 25-year-old from Styria once again finished third.

Following her seventh-place finish in Ulaanbaatar, Metka once again entered the competition in Qingdao as one of the seeded athletes in her category. As the second seed, she had a bye in the first round before opening her campaign against Uzbekistan’s Marjona Kuchimova. The Slovenian judoka ended the contest in less than a minute with a successful choke.

In the round of 16, Lobnik faced North Korea’s Won Hui Jang. In regular time, both judokas received two penalties, while the score remained level. Lobnik secured the win and a place in the next round after one minute of golden score, scoring the decisive yuko with a hold-down.

The quarter-final brought Metka a contest against Japanese champion Mizuki Sugimura. After a minute and a half, the Japanese judoka took the lead with a yuko from a successful foot technique, before continuing strongly in groundwork, where she caught the Slovenian in a hold-down from which Lobnik was unable to escape.

The Slovenian judoka continued the competition in the repechage, where she faced young Romanian judoka Maidelines Gorguet-Veranes. Lobnik started the contest decisively and put pressure on her opponent from the very beginning. The Romanian had no answer and, due to false attacks used to avoid the Slovenian’s pressure, quickly received three penalties and was consequently disqualified.

In the bronze-medal contest, Metka faced a familiar opponent, Brazil’s Beatriz Freitas, whom she had already met three times over the past year, most recently in March in Linz, where the Slovenian won their bronze-medal contest. This time, the Brazilian started better. After an evenly matched opening minute, in which both athletes launched attacks, Freitas took the lead in the second minute with a waza-ari from a foot technique.

But Lobnik did not trail for long. In the very next attack, she threatened the Brazilian with a low technique, which Freitas managed to defend. Shortly afterwards, in another attempt from her knees, Lobnik quickly changed the direction of the attack as the Brazilian defended, driving her onto her back for ippon and another bronze medal on the World Judo Tour.

“I am ending the day with third place and a bronze medal in Qingdao, China. Earlier on this two-week tour, I also finished seventh in Mongolia. The past two weeks have been quite demanding, so I am happy that this part is now behind me and that some rest follows. These two competitions also marked the beginning of the qualification period for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, so I am pleased to have started it with a medal and some new points. Now we move forward, as two years is a long period. My main goal is to stay healthy and injury-free, and to achieve a few more good results. Next up are preparations for the Mediterranean Games, which will take place at the end of August, followed by the next major goal of the season – the World Championships in October,” said Metka Lobnik after winning the bronze medal.

In addition to Metka, four other Slovenian judokas competed in Qingdao. On the opening day, David Štarkel claimed seventh place in the under-60-kilogram category with two victories. On the second day, Nace Herkovič also recorded two wins in the under-81-kilogram category. After winning his opening contest, he eliminated former world silver medallist Sotaro Fujiwara in spectacular fashion, before losing to eventual bronze medallist Manuel Parlati of Italy. Kaja Schuster earned one victory in the under-70-kilogram category, convincingly defeating the representative of Turkmenistan before being eliminated by the eventual category winner, Lara Cvjetko. Nika Koren also competed in the same category but finished the competition in the first round.

The World Judo Tour will now pause for just over a month, before resuming in mid-August with the Lima Grand Prix, which will take place from 14 to 16 August. Ahead of the World Championships, which will be hosted by Baku in October, the calendar will also feature the Lausanne Grand Slam from 28 to 30 August and the Budapest Grand Slam from 11 to 13 September.

Photo: IJF - Emanuele Di Feliciantonio