Third medal in Qatar: Raz Hershko won bronze at the World Judo Championships - Walla! sport

Israeli judoka Inbar Lanir wins gold medal in Qatar (Judo Federation)

The Israeli delegation ended its participation in the World Judo Championships in Qatar on Saturday evening with a third medal and wall-to-wall smiles. After winning gold by Inbar Lanir and the bronze medal by Peter Palchik, which have already made the current championship Israel's most successful ever (there has never been a championship with more than one medal), Raz Hershko improved the achievement by also standing on the podium with a bronze medal.

The 24-year-old Hershko, who is second in the world rankings in the open weight category, finished second at last year's European Championships and since the beginning of the year has won Grand Slam Tel Aviv and Grand Slam Tbilisi, but this medal at the World Championships is her greatest achievement personally (she shared the team bronze medal in Tokyo as well as the previous World Championships).

Another moment of happiness. Raz Hershko (Photo by Getty Images, Levan Verdzeuli)

The judoka (up to 78kg) made it through the first stage quite easily, where she met 20-year-old Christy Rose Pretorius from Zimbabwe. After just two minutes, Pretorius took her third penalty, securing the victory for the 24-year-old Israeli. In the eighth final, Hershko faced China's Su Xin, whom she defeated in Ipon en route to the last eight.

In the quarterfinals, she met a tough opponent in the form of Akira Sona. Two and a half minutes into the bout, the Japanese pinned Hershko to the mat, en route to the iPhone that gave her her ticket to the quarterfinals and sent Raz Hershko to the consolation house. Facing Hershko was Turkey's Kaira Sait who dragged into a trench battle during which they scored two penalties each, but in the gold score Hershko squeezed the third penalty and qualified for the bronze.

The medal battle awaited China's Xian Chu, whom Hershko had won in three past clashes, including the 2022 Jerusalem Masters. The story was the same this time, with the Israeli leading thanks to Wazari and not giving her opponent a chance to equalize. Hershko dominated the fight, almost getting a second Vasari and, despite two penalties, maintained the advantage and celebrated at the end of another great achievement that puts her as a medal contender at next year's Paris Olympics.

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• Raz Hershko