Sanne van Dijke finished in fifth place at the Olympic Games. After losing the semi-final, she progressed to the bronze medal match. In this match, she met the Belgian Willems. Halfway through the match, the Belgian scored a point, waza-ari, and Sanne was unable to get a counter-score on the scoreboard. This means she finished fifth at her second Olympic Games.
Earlier in the day
Sanne, who had a bad preparation due to a hernia, won earlier in the eighth finals against her opponent from Bosnia and Herzegovina. She started well, but as the match progressed she got a little less grip on the match and this resulted in a passivity penalty. Towards the end of the match Sanne got her on the ground. Unfortunately that did not result in a score, but she continued on the ground and applied a hold. She did not let go of this and her opponent knocked her out.
In her quarter finals, the strong Japanese Niizoe, the 2023 world champion, was waiting. In their last encounter, in the semi-finals of the Judo Masters, Sanne managed to beat her and today she succeeded again. From the start, Van Dijke looked strong and halfway through that was rewarded with a waza-ari score. She did not relinquish this lead.
Her opponent in the semi-final was Croatian Barbara Matic. The two-time world champion and current number 1 in the world proved to be just a little too strong for her today. Sanne goes towards the ground and receives a waza-ari. She ends up in a hold and unfortunately she can’t escape.
Noël van ‘t End eliminated
Noël van ‘t End unfortunately lost his first match and is therefore quickly out of the individual tournament. He had to compete against the Brazilian Macedeo, the current number 7 in the world. In the end it became a frustrating match for van ‘t End, he did not succeed in breaking through the defense of the Brazilian. This earned him three penalties for passivity.
