Catarina Costa fights for bronze, Telma Monteiro finishes 7th in the European Championship

Judoka from Académica de Coimbra, who comes from a five-month break and was twice runner-up, will try to reach her third medal in three consecutive championships

With a victory over Belgian Ellen Salens (48th in the ranking) in the repechage fight, Catarina Costa (8th) guaranteed her presence in this afternoon’s fight, for the -48 kg bronze medal at the Zagreb European Judo Championship. On her side, Telma Monteiro (29th), in the same situation in the competition, lost to Serbian Marica Perisic (9th), finishing the championship in 7th place in the -57 kg category.

On a day at the start of the competition in which Portugal had six of the 15 judokas it took to Croatia in action, it is still curious that the two athletes who returned to the competition due to injuries that had to undergo surgery, were the ones who arrived further in the test.

After being European runner-up in Sofia-2022 and Montpellier-2023, Catarina Costa, 27 years old, now has the chance to add her third consecutive medal in the event when, this afternoon (4pm), she faces Serbian Milica Nikolic (6. ª) in the fight for 3rd place in the competition.

The two have already faced each other on six occasions since 2018, the last in 2022 in the quarter-finals of the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam and with the Portuguese winning, and have a balance of 3-3.

Returning to the competition five months after suffering an ankle injury in December that turned out to be more complicated than expected and also undergoing surgery on her elbow, Catarina, who was exempt from the opening round, had a long day to test whether the physical condition was ok. Especially resistance.

Runner-up in the last two Europeans, Catarina Costa is back in Zagreb and will fight on Thursday. Ankle injury and elbow surgery kept her away from the World Tour for five months

In the first confrontation with the Serbian Andrea Stojadinov (24th) had to fight for 6.19m before managing to impose the third punishment. This was followed by the quarter-finals against the Israeli Tamar Malca (30th) and once again forced to compete for the extra 1.34m golden point, where she was ruled out of the title race after being penalized with a third shido.

Six of Portugal’s 11 gold medals come from Telma. Catarina and Patrícia shone in 2023

In the fight with the Belgian Salens, to decide who will be in the bronze medal match, another 7.10m of combat, but this time with Catarina resolving things in her favor with wazari.

As for Telma, who at the age of 38 will have completed her 18th and last participation in a European championship, an event in which she won 15 individual medals, plus one for mixed teams, and was champion six times, she found herself eliminated in the repechage by Serbian Perisic after a grueling 6.01m on the tatami that ended with the Benfica judoka giving the idea that she had a problem with her left knee.

The same one that underwent surgery six months ago after suffering a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in the first match of the European Championship in Montpellier-2023, in November.

At that moment both judokas had two punishments and when the fight went to the ground, before getting up Monteiro put his hands on his knee a little, spoke to the referee and preferred not to risk it as he still has three tests, two grand slams and the World Cup, to remain in the qualifying position for the Paris-2024 Games. What happens will be her sixth, something never achieved by a Portuguese woman.

As for Telma, who at the age of 38 will have completed her 18th and last participation in a European championship, an event in which she won 15 individual medals, plus one for mixed teams, and was champion six times, she found herself eliminated in the repechage by Serbian Perisic after a grueling 6.01m on the tatami that ended with the Benfica judoka giving the idea that she had a problem with her left knee.

The same one that underwent surgery six months ago after suffering a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in the first match of the European Championship in Montpellier-2023, in November.

At that moment both had two punishments and when the fight went to the ground, before getting up Monteiro put his hand on his knee a little and spoke to the referee, and he preferred not to risk it as he still has three tests, two grand slams and the World Cup, to remain in a position to qualify for the Paris-2024 Games. What happens will be her sixth, something never achieved by a Portuguese woman.

But, for those who hadn’t competed in six months and some part of them couldn’t even walk or run, the day was also demanding on Telma. Exempted from the 1st round, in the opening fight with the British Lele Nairne (24th), the bronze medalist at the Rio 2016 Games fought for 9.13m until she managed to resolve everything with one wazari.

Wear that could have had an impact in the 3rd round against the French Priscilla Gneto (15th), also a 32-year-old veteran and Olympic bronze medalist, but at the London 2012 Games. Ended up eliminated with a sensational wazari from Telma, who had two penalties, at 5.36m.

This was followed by Monteiro’s first defeat, in the quarter-finals, against the German Pauline Starke (12th), when she suffered an armbar when there was still 2.23m left on the clock.

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