Cuban judoka Idalys Ortiz wins silver medal in Tokyo

July 30, 2021

On the tatami of the sacred temple of world judo, the Nippon Budokan, Idalys Ortiz gave Cuba its second medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, after falling to local Akira Sone for the title in the super heavyweight division (over 78 kg).

After surpassing rivals of high caliber, Ortiz reached her third consecutive final under the five rings and there she found the most difficult of opponents: Sone, against whom she lost for the fourth time in five head-to-head matches, now in overtime.

Idalys was quite cautious, to the point of receiving three shidos (penalties), two for not proposing combat and the third for false attack, which decreed her disqualification and the silver medal.

On the road to competing for the crown, the artemiseña made her debut in the round of 16 with a victory by golden rule and waza-ari against Portuguese Rochelle Nunes, before defeating Chinese Shiyan Xu in the quarterfinals.

The one from the Asian Giant proved to be a less complicated obstacle and resolved the fight in just over two minutes (2:25), thanks to two waza-aris (equivalent to an ippon), and achieved her third success over French Romanne Dicko, prior to facing the Japanese Akiro.

Thus, Idalys became the most decorated Cuban judoka in history at Olympic Games (1-2-1) and surpassed the guantamera Driulis González (1-1-2), also owner of four medals.

Furthermore, she raised the Greater Antilles (0-1-1) to 46th place in the medal count of the Games, in which 68 countries appeared and were led —at the close of this edition— by the delegations of China (18-9-11), Japan (16-4-7) and the United States (14-16-11).