Less than a day before the start of the Tokyo Olympics, the six Cuban judokas already meet their first rivals and their possible path in a competition that ultimately enrolled 393 competitors from 128 countries. Based in the Nippon Budokan, the spiritual house of martial arts in Japan and the place that in 1964 saw the premiere of this sport in summer appointments, the Creole representatives will take action as of July 26.
On that day Magdiel Estrada (73 kg) will go out on the tatami, to face in the second round the Moldovan Victor Sterpu, a man better positioned than him in the Olympic ranking. Both were bye in the initial round and will seek a victory that will keep them alive in a key where South Korean Changrim An appears as the main adversary.
On his side, in the 90 kg Iván Felipe Silva will also wait until the second round to make his debut against Turkish Mikhael Zgank, fifth in this year's European Championship.
If the Antillean achieves victory, he must face off with the American Colton Brown in the fight that leads to the quarterfinals. In that key, the Dutch Noel van T End, 2019 World Champion, comes out as the other favorite to discuss access to the semifinals.
Even so, from the Olympic Village, Iván Silva was pleased with the draw and assured that now it remains to give everything on the tatami. "I knew that no rival was going to be easy, but everything is flowing quite well and we have even adapted without problems to the time change," he emphasized.
Meanwhile, among the ladies, the first to compete will be Maylín del Toro and she should have no trouble beating Muna Dahouk, a member of the refugee athlete team.
Then, the level should rise when they face the best between Anriquelis Barrios and Daria Davydova. Against the first, the Antillean has a historical balance of three victories in five starts, while she dominated the second in their only previous confrontation.
The Maylin key has the Slovenian Tina Trstenjak, second on the Olympic list, as the main figure. Against it, ours files a triumph and three setbacks. The French Clarisse Agbegnenou, one of the stars of world judo, leads the A key and will not cross the path of any of them until a presumable final fight..
Maylín del Toro no debe tener problemas para llegar hasta semifinales.. Foto: IJF.
For her part, Kaliema Antomarchi will make her Olympic Games debut against the winner in the lawsuit between Croatian Karla Prodan and the representative of Montenegro, Jovana Pekovic. If the woman from Santiago fulfills the predictions and manages to win in that match, it is almost certain that she will find the French Madelein Malonga, leader of the world rankings. However, if she lost that duel, she could still be in the running for a bronze medal.
Finally, the main figure of Cuban judo and a broad candidate to climb for the fourth consecutive time to an Olympic podium, Idalys Ortiz, will wait in the second round for the best between the Portuguese Richele Nunes and the Puerto Rican Melisa Mojica. The London 2012 Olympic starter knows both contenders very well and has respective favorable records of 7-2 and phenomenal 14-0 against them.
In other keys of more than 78 kg, in section B the Brazilian Maria Suelen Altheman and the French Romane Dicko stand out, two women who must be measured in the quarterfinals to find who will clash against Idalys in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani Iryna Kindzerska commands poul C and local star Akira Sone should have no trouble advancing through the seven women who will fight in the D bracket.
Contrary to what happened in other tournaments, this time the organization chart favors Cuban judocas, especially since many of them arrived in Tokyo in privileged positions in the Olympic rankings and kept the main contenders away at least until the quarterfinals.
Now it remains to take advantage of that situation and carry out good performances to improve the silver medal and the two fifth places achieved five years ago in Rio 2016.