Inbar Lanir takes only a minute to capture the World Masters

At the last day of the IJF Masters in Budapest fans felt the electricity in the air. At U78kg the contenders for the title were numerous, each of them wanting to prove that they had the right stuff. Brand new reigning world champion Inbar Lanir (ISR) fought again with her red bib and she did not spend more than a minute on the tatami, propelling all her opponents of the day on their backs with consistency, including Jeongyun Lee (KOR) in the semi-final in less than ten seconds. It was a job well done which shows that her world title has rather given her wings.

Former world champion and Olympic medallist Madeleine Malonga had a fantastic day in Budapest, looking like the Malonga who became world champion in 2019. She came out choosing to cancel any kind of force from Lanir but the Israeli has demonstrated many times now that if someone wants to break her posture and rhythm she will confidently pick them up and escape the situation with a perfect response, ippon! She did the same in this Masters final, delivering a thundering ura-nage under the powerful grip of the Frenchwoman.

It took Lanir almost a minute to secure the gold having spent a total of just under a minute in the tatami for all the rest of her contests put together. It was an incredible performance and one worthy of a current world champion. Lanir has immediately grown into her title and competed with both focus and joy.

The French brought in Madeleine Malonga, 2019 Masters winner Fanny Estelle Posvite, 2023 Paris Grand Slam medallist Chloe Buttigieg and undoubtedly one of the stars of the category, Audrey Tcheumeo, double Olympic medallist, four-time world medallist including the title in 2011 in Paris.

It was Malonga and Posvite who had the best run of the day, meeting in the semi-finals towards a victory for Malonga on penalties, a victory which enabled her on the one hand to join Lanir in the final and to show that she is back to her best, on the other. Competition promises to be tough in France for the Olympic spot in the months to come.

The first match for a bronze medal saw Yelyzaveta Lytvynenko (UKR) and Jeongyun Lee (KOR) meet. The medal was easily won by Yelyzaveta Lytvynenko who clearly dominated the contest winning after scoring two waza-ari, the first on an action-reaction and the second with a powerful sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi, as Jeongyun Lee was standing up.

Lieke Derks (NED) and Fanny Estelle Posvite (FRA) fought for a place on the podium. Halfway to the end, Posvite score a waza-ari with te-waza technique and pinned down her opponent to score ippon.

World number one Alice Bellandi (ITA) is an explosive and powerful judoka that few have managed to beat lately but, unfortunately for her, things didn't really go as planned and she had to go back to the locker room after the first round, beaten by Hyunji Yoon (KOR).

Then there was former world champion Anna-Maria Wagner, crowned here in Budapest in 2021, who we have seen taking part in many competitions this season, with gold in Tbilisi and Austria and a silver in Dushanbe. However, disrupted in her preparation by several minor injuries, she arrived in Budapest visibly out of shape, in terms of having to perform at this level. She was eliminated by the young Ukrainian Yelyzaveta Lytvynenko, 2022 world bronze medallist, in the first round.

Israel at the Masters

Although Israel had 20 medallists in the history of the IJF Masters, only two were standing on the highest podium. With Inbar Lanir dominating the U78kg this time, Israel had a second Masters title in a row as Baruch Shmailov had won the title in 2022. Despite all medals since Alice Schlesinger in 2010, Israel hadn’t won more than just those two. Lanir doubled the gold medal haul. Of those 20 medals, ten were achieved in the last three years, that says it all.