Natalie tops rankings with Abu Dhabi success
Olympic medallist Maret ecstatic with his golden effort in 100-kg final
World and European bronze medallist Natalie Powell of Great Britain became her country’s first World No 1 on the official IJF World ranking list by winning gold at the Abu Dhabi judo Grand Slam 2017 held at Ipic Arena on Saturday.
The 27-year-old Welsh judoka, a 15-time Grand Prix medallist, defeated 2009 world champion Marhinde Verkerk of Netherlands for gold in a rematch of their world bronze medal contest. World No 8 Verkerk had earlier ended on the losing side against 2014 Commonwealth Games winner Powell on shidos. Earlier in the semis, Powell had showed defending champion Netherlands Guusje Steenhuis the door.
“I was really happy to be able to beat both of them on the same day. I have lost to them quite a few times in the past in the last cycle, but I feel like I am getting stronger and my tactics are getting better. Yes, it was really good,” said an elated Powell.
“It feels pretty cool, amazing. I’m not entirely sure if it is the first ever. I think Euan [Burton] might have been number one as well, so we will say first female number one. So it is pretty cool,” said Powell, who pressed forward and set a fast pace, which forced referee to reprimand Verkerk.
Rio Olympics bronze medallist Cyrille Maret of France has been coming to the capital for a while now but this year proved to be special as he went on to clinch gold in the IJF Abu Dhabi Grand Slam 100-kg final against Poland’s Maciej Sarnacki.
Big moment
“I’m extremely delighted as I have won against some of the best. It took a long time and a good amount of work to finally get my hands on the gold in Abu Dhabi,” said Maret, who has been a dominant force at Grand Slams held in Paris where he had won thrice in a row from 2014 to 2016.
“The best finish for me here was a bronze medal and to improve on that feels very special.”
Another telling performance came in the men’s Under100kg final where Russian Niiaz Bilalov got the better of former world bronze medallist Toma Nikiforov of Belgium.
In the women’s action, Baku Grand Slam winner Tessie Savelkouls of the Netherlands won the heavyweight gold beating world bronze medallist Iryna Kindzerska of Azerbaijan to take her country up to second spot in the medal table.