Exempted from the first round, Verstraeten, 21, 124th in the world, beat the Polish Oliwia Onysk (unclassified) on waza-ari then the Turkish Ebru Sahin (IJF 55) on ippon before losing in half- final against the Japanese Hikari Yoshioka, future winner of the tournament, on ippon. In the fight for bronze, she was beaten by Poland’s Paulina Szlachta (IJF 147) on waza-ari.
In -57 kg, Eveline Delbaen (IJF 138) was beaten in her first fight by the German Pauline Starke (IJF 45) on ippon.
Selina Delen (IJF 122) experienced the same fate in -63 kg, eliminated on ippon by the Italian Carola Paissoni (not classified in this category).
In the men’s category, Dries Ponnet (unclassified) passed two rounds in -73 kg, against the Dutchman Koen Heg (IJF 157) on waza-ari and the Kazakh Darkhan Koibagar (unclassified) on ippon, before losing to to Georgian Giorgi Terashvili (IJF 117) on waza-ari.
