Anna Monta Olek wins World Championship silver in Budapest and celebrates the greatest success of her career. She narrowly misses out on gold after extra time.
Anna Monta Olek surprisingly won silver at the Judo World Championships in Budapest, narrowly missing out on a sensational gold medal. The 22-year-old from Hanover lost by a hair’s breadth in extra time in a marathon final in the 78 kg class to Italian Olympic champion Alice Bellandi, who thus succeeded Anna-Maria Wagner.
After exactly ten minutes of fighting, Bellandi, who was already looking very exhausted, scored the only point in the final out of the blue. Olek, the European Championship runner-up, who looked much fitter, had the four-year-older top favorite well under control until then and had the better chances of winning in the four minutes of regular fighting time and the “golden score” overtime.
For the German Judo Federation (DJB), it was already the third medal in Hungary after bronze for Miriam Butkereit and Mascha Ballhaus.
Olek puts in an outstanding performance
Olek had already put in an outstanding performance on Wednesday. The daughter of former European bronze medalist Detlef Knorrek won her semi-final against Portugal’s Olympic bronze medalist Patrícia Sampaio, whom she had lost to in the European Championship final in April. Olek had previously defeated Asian champion Kurena Ikeda from Japan in the quarter-finals.
Two-time European champion Alina Böhm (Heubach) lost to Ikeda in her opening match on Wednesday. “Alina was fired up and very motivated, and it’s so sad that she was eliminated so unluckily and that her dream of the World Championships was dashed so quickly,” said women’s national coach Claudiu Pusa.
Bellandi had lost the 2024 World Championship final to Wagner and now successfully took her revenge. Wagner is ending her career at the end of the season and did not compete to defend her title in Budapest.
Hopeful for the Olympics
Until the 2024 Olympic season, Olek was only the German number three in the 78 kg class behind top fighters Wagner and Böhm. With a view to the next Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028, she is now the great hope.
Even without another gold medal, the women’s light heavyweight division remains the DJB’s flagship division. In 1982, Barbara Claßen won the first World Championship gold medal for a German judoka, and Wagner secured the title in 2021 and 2024. Claßen also became European champion in 1978 and 1984, and Böhm most recently won European gold in 2022 and 2024.
