Judoka Giovanna Scoccimarro (Vorsfelde) won the first German medal at the World Championships in Doha. The European Championship runner-up in 2017 had to admit defeat in the class up to 70 kg only in the final of the Japanese Saki Niizoe and took silver.
“I was devastated after the final because I thought I hadn’t given it my all. But with some distance it’s a great result,” said the 25-year-old, who dropped out a year ago with a cruciate ligament tear: “It’s overwhelming .”
Scoccimarro won all five fights on the way to the final, including the duels with the Dutchman Sanne van Dijke, against whom she had lost the small final at the Tokyo Olympics, and the Olympic silver medalist Michaela Polleres (Austria).
In the final, however, was the end of the line. The only German judo world champion since 1993 remains Anna-Maria Wagner, who won the class up to 78 kg in Budapest in 2021.
The two-time World Cup fifth Miriam Butkereit failed on Thursday in round three at the British Katie-Jemima Yeats-Brown.