The Cordoba judoka, 31 years old, but based in Valencia, where she competes with the Valencia Club de Judorose to the top of a Grand Slam tournament after a competition in which she beat Turkey’s Merve Azak, Kazakh Abiba Abuzhakynova, Portugal’s Catarina Costa and Milani.
Bronze in the past European Championships in Sofia (her second continental podium after another third place in Minsk 2019) and in the World Championships in Budapest 2021, and fifth in the World Championships in Tashkent 2022won all the fights by ippon except against Costa.
#Judo You already have the GOLD that you chased and deserved so much! @JuliaFigueroaPe (minus 48 kg) is proclaimed champion of the Grand Slam of Abu Dhabi. Julia is full, unstoppable, launched… towards the Paris Olympics. Thank you for this new joy and congratulations! pic.twitter.com/wwh2DPe2WD
— FER Project (@FERProject) October 21, 2022
Milani had been the executioner of the also Spanish Mireia Lapuerta in the second round after having won the Ottoman Tugce Beder in the first.
Secondly, Albert Piper He stayed at the gates of the bronze in -66 kilos. After getting rid of the Bulgarian Yanislav Gerchev and the Tajik Shahboz Saidaburorov, he could not beat the Kazakh Yesset Kuanov, which separated him from the semifinals and sent him to the playoffs, in which he beat the Ecuadorian Lenin Preciado and lost to the Italian Matteo Piras.
In -52 kilos, the Valencian Ana Pérez Box beat the Serbian Dadezda Petrovic and lost to the Uzbek Diyora Keldiyorova, and Estrella López Sheriff also lost in the second round against the Brazilian Yasmin Lima. Izaskun Ballesteros fell in the first of -57 kilos against the Dutch Shannon van de Meeberg.
In the men’s category, Francisco Garrigós could not be in the fight for the medals in -60 kilos. He beat the Czech David Pulkrabek, but succumbed to the Turkish Salih Yildiz.