In the match for the bronze medal in the category of 78+, Ceric defeated Yu Song from China, the current world champion who is also leading on the world ranking list.
“This is the strongest tournament as the Wimbledon is in tennis, and in the hierarchy it is below the World, but above the European Championship. Our Larisa won the medal for B&H in such a strong tournament for the first time. This competition is a qualifying event for the Olympic Games. Larisa won new 200 points, and now she occupies 9th place in the rankings, and we are aiming to be among the top 8 in order to be the bearer on the Olympic Games. We have the Olympic standard, and it is not an issue. In the upcoming tournaments we want to stabilize in the top 8 in the rankings. The tournament was held in Paris, the cradle of European judo. Tickets were sold out, and Larisa defeated the current world champion and the best rated Judoist which has more than 3,000 points in front of 15,000 spectators. Larisa made us very happy with this bronze medal. This is extremely good result, which gives us the hope that we can expect the good result at the Olympic Games,” said the coach, Branislav Crnogorac.
Larisa is already turning to new challenges that are expecting her in the future, including huge and important tournaments in Abu Dhabi, Japan, China and South Korea.
“My goal is to get among the top 8 players, in order to have easier draw. I had problems and injuries during my career, but I always had people around me who believed in me and gave me extra strength. We will continue together through all the obstacles. I do not want to get too excited by the victory against the World Champion, I am proud but I have a lot more tournaments. I need to be strong and cautious,” concluded Ceric.
(Source: klix.ba)