Telma Monteiro wins bronze medal at Qingdao Masters
Telma Monteiro won the bronze medal today at the 2019 Masters in Qingdao, with the Portuguese woman climbing for the fourth time to the podium in the competition that brings together the best judokas of each category at the end of the year.
The judoka, competing at -57 kg, secured the bronze by beating Taiwan’s Cheng-Ling Lien in a golden-scoring match in which the Portuguese won by ippon after the third punishment of her opponent.
Telma and Lien entered the knockout phase after the opening four minutes, both with two punishments, but Lien, who played a less risky game, was penalized with a third ‘shido’ after 2.53 minutes of the ‘golden score’.
This is the fourth Telma Monteiro medal in a Masters competition, after being champion in 2011 in Baku, silver in 2012 in Almaty, and bronze in 2013 in Tyumen. The judoka is the only Portuguese with podiums in Masters.
Today, Telma, who is in qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics2020, currently 17th in qualifying, lost one of four matches, with Japan’s Tsusaka Yoshida, who eventually lost in the semi-finals and then bronze.
Relegated to the consolation zone Telma Monteiro won the two matches she had with South Korea Jisu Kim and Lien after also starting the race in Qingdao with a triumph against the Romanian. Loredana Ohai.
In -48 kg competed Maria Siderot and Catarina Costa, with the two judokas eliminated in the initial rounds.
In this Masters, Portugal has nine judokas, also entering the competition Bárbara Timo (world runner-up), at -70 kg, and Anri Egutidze, at -81 kg, on Friday, and Patrícia Sampaio and Yahima Ramirez, at – 78 kg, Rochele Nunes, at +78 kg, and Jorge Fonseca (world champion), at -100 kg, on Saturday.
