MADRID, 8 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish judoka Daniel Gavilán gave the good news for the delegation present at the Judo World Championship for the Blind that is being held in Baku by winning the bronze medal in the J2 -60 kilos category.
According to the Spanish Paralympic Committee (CPE), the man from Madrid signed a great tour beating the Indian Deepak Kumar and the Korean Min Jae Lee, and being held back in his attempt to reach the final by the Ukrainian Davyd Khorava.
Gavilán knew how to overcome this hard blow and recovered to win an intense bronze medal match against the Uzbek Sherzov Namozov, gold in Tokyo 2020 and who even had an ‘ippon’ annulled. Finally, in the gold technique, luck smiled on the Spanish judoka, who returned to the podium of a major international competition after being continental bronze in September.
On the other hand, neither Sergio Ibáñez nor the veteran Marta Arce could accompany him on the podium, who stayed on the verge of the bronze medal. The Aragonese, Paralympic silver last year, recovered from his early elimination by overcoming his two play-off matches in J2 73 kilos, but could not beat the Kazakh Olzhas Orazalyuli.
For her part, the veteran Valladolid judoka Marta Arce, in J2 -70 kilos, as happened to her last year in Tokyo 2020, fell in the fight for bronze, this time against the Kazakh Dayana Fedoskova and after having lost in the semifinals against the Turkish Ceynep Celik.
Finally, the Spanish representation of the day was completed with María Manzanero, the only totally blind athlete in the Spanish delegation and who finished seventh in J1 -57 kg. The Madrid fell in the quarterfinals against the Turkish Dondu Yrsilyurt, but she went to the playoffs where after winning her first match, she lost the one that gave her the pass to the fight for the bronze against the Argentine Paula Gómez.