Assunta Scutto, stunning gold at judo world championships: avenged Paris disappointment
The first day of the judo World Championships hosted by the Laszlo Papp Sports Arena in Budapest, Hungary, gave a splendid success to the Italian colors: Assunta Scutto in fact won the gold medal in the category up to 48 kg women, beating Kazakhstan’s Abuzhakynova in the final, with the decisive ippon at 13″ from the end of the clock.
Scutto thus put behind her the disappointment of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games during which, after her elimination in the quarters at the hands of Sweden’s Tara Babulfath, she had missed out on access to the repechage for bronze by also losing to France’s Shirine Boukli. It was precisely the latter that was Assunta Scutto’s opponent in the semifinals, who this time took a brilliant revenge.
The two bronze medals, awarded in the final rounds following the repechage matches, went to Spain’s Laura Martinez, who defeated Sabina Giliazova (a Russian athlete participating in the “international” team, being unable to represent her country), and Japan’s Wakana Koga, who got the better of Shirine Boukli.
The one won on Friday is the first rainbow gold for Assunta Scutto, who had previously won a silver at the 2024 World Championships held in Abu Dhabi (defeat in the final against Bavuudorjiin Baasankhüü, an athlete from Mongolia) and two bronze medals, in Doha in 2023 (victory in the final just against Abiba Abuzhakynova) and the year before in Tashkent, beating Spain’s Julia Figueroa in one of the two bronze medal matches).
