Cadet and junior world champion Iroha Oi of japan was aiming at Japan\u2019s second gold medal of the day when she stepped into the spotlight to face senior world medallist Roza Gyertyas for the -52 kg gold medal at the Upper Austria Grand Prix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gyertyas\u2019 physicality was difficult for Oi to manage. She wanted to protect the distance between them but the Hungarian was committed to avoiding that scenario and continued to pull her in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At just over two minutes to go, Oi warned Gyertyas what would happen if the space between them did widen, scoring a yuko with a tiny ko-uchi-gari. That remained the only score of the contest and so it was gold for Iroha Oi and silver for Roza Gyertyas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier, in the opening women’s -48kg category Spain had the chance of walking away with two medals but had the guarantee of one having placed Eva Perez Soler in the final against Mitsuki Kondo of Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The contest was much closer than Kondo might have expected, Perez Soler arriving with a solid tactical plan. A clean fight, intelligent work from both athletes but as half-time came and went, one needed to make a break for the finish line and that was Kondo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She turned in with a fantastic, low tai-otoshi and threw Perez Soler for a waza-ari, converting it to ippon on the ground. Japan took the first gold of the tournament!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the women’s -57kg, an open field had been overturned by the two Japanese fighters of the group. Moa Ono and Ayami Takano, who had dispatched all others, one by one, until just they remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was difficult to separate them, each knowing the other well and also understanding the risks of opening up too much. penalties began to accumulate as the time slipped away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As they went into golden score there remained little between them but Takano found her moment on the ground and applied an inescapable shime-waza. A broad smile spread across the face as she became the -57 kg champion of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lightest of the men\u2019s categories, -60kg, under the spotlights of the Tips Arena in Linz gave world silver medallist Romain Valadier Picard of France a hard time. His place in the final was never certain despite beginning his day at the top of the sheet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A bye and four wins after his day began and the Frenchman could breathe a sigh of relief. He reached the final, having summoned all his resilience and grit to do so. In his last contest he would face Dilshot Khalmatov of Ukraine, a 6-time World Judo Tour medallist and one of the biggest throwers on this first day of competition in Upper Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a close affair to begin with, neither opening up enough to make a mark. As the last minute approached, the frenchman attacked with a very low tai-otoshi and scored a yuko, pushing Khalmatov to come forward more. As he did Picard threw again, a seoi-otoshi for waza-ari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At this point, the French world medallist should have been safe but he made an almost catastrophic mistake, standing up after a failed attacked, right into the arms of Khalmatov who managed to grapple his way to a yuko; it could have been a lot worse for Picard in that moment. However, he held his nerve and the leading score, taking him to the top of the podium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ruslan Pashayev of Azerbaijan and Brazilian Ronald Lima had made their way through the men’s under-66 kg field during the preliminary rounds, passing worthy challengers over and over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In their final, Lima, last year\u2019s winner in Linz, knew there was danger associated with every movement. Pashayev can catch anyone from almost any position and so the mental energy needed to navigate such a fight is immense. Lima was ready, though. He applied all his power to attack with an o-uchi-gari. Pashayev tried to spin off it but he was caught for a yuko. The pressure on him then became extreme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Azerbaijani competitor pulled Lima in more and more and as he tried to escape, he swept him with a huge de-ashi-harai. Lima reacted well and scrambled for it to be only a yuko and so the scores were even. They went into golden score and after two minutes of extra time a yuko and two penalties were visible on each side of the scoreboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another minute passed and they both looked for ashi-waza to but gingerly. Pashayev took a chance to counter Lima with a beautiful tsubami-gaeshi. The gold would be heading to Azerbaijan while Lima would collect silver, his second final in Linz in as many editions, but it wasn\u2019t gold for him this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women’s -48 kg: <\/strong>1. KONDO Mitsuki (JPN); 2. PEREZ SOLER Eva (ESP); 3. GERSJES Amber (NED) and MARTINEZ ABELENDA Laura (ESP); 5. ABUZHAKYNOVA Abiba (KAZ) and WANDEL Vera (NED); 7. VARGAS LEY Mary Dee (CHI) and ERSIN Sila (TUR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women’s -52 kg:<\/strong> 1. 1. OI Iroha (JPN); 2. GYERTYAS Roza (HUN); 3. CONCEICAO Gabriela (BRA) and LEIVA SANCHEZ Ayumi (ESP); 5. POULANGE Alyssia (FRA) and KEEN Tatum (GBR); 7. CUQ Pauline (FRA) and 7. BEATON Evelyn (CAN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women’s -57 kg:<\/strong> 1. TAKANO Ayami (JPN); 2. ONO Moa (JPN); 3. GARCIA MARTIN Marta (ESP) and FAWAZ Martha (FRA); 5. BORTAS Dora (CRO) and LIMA Jessica (BRA); 7. MATIKAINEN Pihla (FIN) and ESTEVES Mariana (GUI)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men’s -60 kg: <\/strong>1. VALADIER PICARD Romain (FRA); 2. KHALMATOV Dilshot (UKR); 3. DAVLATOV Sherzod (KAZ) and SATO Sei (JPN); 5. BAKYTZHAN Aman (KAZ) and MATSUNAGA Retsu (JPN); 7. MURADLI Murad (AZE) and FERNANDES B.Tralhao (POR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men’s -66 kg:<\/strong> 1. PASHAYEV Ruslan (AZE); 2. LIMA Ronald (BRA); 3. NIETO CHINARRO Adrian (ESP) and GARCIA TORNE David (ESP); 5. KYRGYZBAYEV Gusman (KAZ) and MARGVELASHVILI Vazha (GEO); 7. CHRISTODOULIDES Petros (CYP) and VIERU Denis (MDA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cadet and junior world champion Iroha Oi of japan was aiming at Japan\u2019s second gold medal of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[106],"class_list":["post-10262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-judo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Iroha-Oi-JPN-vs-GYERTYAS-Roza-Gyertyas-HUN.jpg",2002,1127,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Iroha-Oi-JPN-vs-GYERTYAS-Roza-Gyertyas-HUN-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Iroha-Oi-JPN-vs-GYERTYAS-Roza-Gyertyas-HUN-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Iroha-Oi-JPN-vs-GYERTYAS-Roza-Gyertyas-HUN-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Iroha-Oi-JPN-vs-GYERTYAS-Roza-Gyertyas-HUN-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Iroha-Oi-JPN-vs-GYERTYAS-Roza-Gyertyas-HUN-1536x865.jpg",1536,865,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Iroha-Oi-JPN-vs-GYERTYAS-Roza-Gyertyas-HUN.jpg",2002,1127,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Iroha-Oi-JPN-vs-GYERTYAS-Roza-Gyertyas-HUN-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Iroha-Oi-JPN-vs-GYERTYAS-Roza-Gyertyas-HUN-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Iroha-Oi-JPN-vs-GYERTYAS-Roza-Gyertyas-HUN.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10264,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10262\/revisions\/10264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}