Two fine bronze medals for the Belgians in judo
At the Guadalajara Judo Grand Prix, Gabriella Willems won the bronze medal, as did Jorre Verstraeten in the men's competition.
The Liège judoka won the third Grand Prix medal of her career, after bronze in The Hague and silver in Cancun in 2018.
On the tatami mats of Guadalajara, Mexico, Gabriella Willems only lost in the semifinals to world No. 1, Croatian Lara Cvjetko. Before that, the 28-year-old Belgian had defeated Israeli Maya Goshen and then Slovenian Kaja Schuster.
After losing by ippon in the golden score in the semifinal, she won the bronze medal match against Italian Giorgia Stangherlin, world No. 15, by ippon following a hold.
As a reminder, Gabriella Willems won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics and hadn't stepped onto the mats since mid-June, when she was eliminated in the round of 16 at the World Championships (a defeat to the same Lara Cvjetko).
In the men's competition, Jorre Verstraeten reached the podium for the second time in two weeks after his bronze medal last week in Lima, Peru.
With a bye in the first round, Verstraeten, ranked 15th in the world, dominated Hungary's Csanad Feczko and then Azerbaijan's Ahmad Yusifov before losing in the semifinals to another Azerbaijani, Balabay Aghayev, ranked 10th in the world and the eventual winner.
The Belgian then made up for it by winning the bronze medal match against Cuba's Jonathan Charon with an ippon in the golden score.
Excellent performances for these Belgian judokas at the highest level of their discipline!