Trstenjak wins silver at Judo World Championships
Budapest, 31 August - Olympic judo champion Tina Trstenjak failed to defend her -63 kg world champion title in Budapest on Thursday, as she conceded to her archrival Clarisse Agbegnenou from France in the final to take the silver medal.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Slovenian judoka Tina Trstenjak winning Olympic gold medal in the women's 63kg category
Photo: Stanko Gruden/STA
The match was particularly one-sided this time, with Trstenjak failing to find a way for serious fight and accumulating three penalties in less than three minutes, which meant that the match was lost.
The 27-year-old gold medallist from Rio had defeated Junxia Yang from China in a tough fight in the semi final, which lasted almost nine minutes.
She moreover eliminated Spain's Cristina Perez Cabana, Austria's Magdalena Krssakova and Amy Livesey from the UK on her path to the final.
"The day was very difficult. All fights were hard. There is of course some disappointment, but a medal is a medal. The biggest mistake in the final was that I failed to follow the tactics that had been agreed on with the coach and everything went downhill from there".
Trstenjak was not very satisfied with finishing second. "I'm very critical of myself and I find it hard to be satisfied with a silver or bronze, but on the other hand the truth is that it is hard to win gold every time."
Her coach Marjan Fabjan is of a different opinion. "I'm as happy with the final as if she had won gold. I would like to say once again that we had not had any special preparations for these world championships."