THE BALL – Bárbara Timo in the final of the Portuguese Grand Prix (Judo)
The Portuguese Olympic judoka Bárbara Timo (-63 kg category) qualified this Saturday for the final of the Portuguese Grand Prix, taking place at Pavilhão de Almada, by defeating, in the semi-finals, the Spanish Cristina Cabana, 24th. of the ranking, in a fight that dominated from start to finish but in which, even without having won a point in regular time, she ended up winning by imposing the third punishment on her opponent eight seconds into extra time.
Without having been able to compete a year ago, in the debut of the Portuguese stage, which started to mark the start of the World Tour, due to having fractured a toe while training – he got stuck between the mats, and had to be hospitalized in surgery -, Bárbara, 31 years old, 16th in the ranking, will compete for the gold medal starting at 5 pm in the final, against Brazilian Gabriella Moraes, 22 years old, 105th in supremacy. The two have never faced each other to date.
It should be remembered that Bárbara Timo is a native of Rio de Janeiro, and after being internationalized by Brazil, she acquired naturalization by Portugal in early 2019, having started a career developed at an international level, reaching the Tokyo Olympics – 2020 (played in 2021).
The Benfica judoka, who in the past season, in addition to having won two podiums on the circuit, also took ‘bronze’ at the World Championship, in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). It was his second podium in his career at a World Cup, after the silver medal in Tokyo-2019, but in the -70 kg category.
Exempt from the 1st round in Almada, in the following round Bárbara eliminated the Angolan Diassonema Macungui, 100th in the ranking, in just 44 seconds, and then took on Serbian Anja Obradovic, 33rd in the ranking, for ‘wazari’. In the quarterfinals, two ‘wazari’ in 2 minutes and 56 seconds arrived to defeat the Croatian Iva Oberan, 22nd in the ranking, before securing the fight with the Spanish Cristina Cabana.
Regardless of the medal he achieves this afternoon, this will be Bárbara Timo’s seventh podium on the World Tour – Grand Slams and Grand Prix – since he started representing Portugal in 2019, a country for which he also won bronze at the Lisbon European Championship. While competing for Brazil, between 2013 and 2018, Bárbara added five podiums.