With Bianca Estrella moving up in weight, UST’s Eunice Lucero was the overwhelming favorite to take this year’s UAAP middleweight division. Lucero had been on a tear for the entire year, winning the women’s middleweight division in the Hajime and Diliman Slam tournaments. Last Friday was her crowning moment as the best middleweight judoka in the country today
In the opening matches, UE’s Sharlene Mae Guyo advanced to the semifinals after defeating La Salle’s Arian Galfo in the opening contest while Lucero soundly defeated UP’s Alyssa Christianna Flores to complete the cast in the first bracket. In the other bracket, UE’s Justine Gonzales and last season’s silver medalist Dylwynn Gimena bested UST’s Patricia Raymundo and Ateneo’s Adrianna Uy respectively to advance to the semifinals as well.
Lucero whipped a huge ippon on Sharlene Guyo in just one minute and seven seconds of mat time in the first semifinals. In the other bracket, Gimena displayed complete confidence in soundly defeating Raymundo, capped by an ippon with 32 seconds remaining to set-up the UP vs. UST Middleweight finals.
UP’s Alyssa Flores was able to cop the first bronze medal in out-pointing Patricia Raymundo. In the other third place match, Ateneo’s Adrianne Uy slammed UE’s Sharlene Guyo with a buzzer-beating ippon to take the other bronze medal.
In the finals, Lucero scored on a wazari was able to pin Gimena in the first 30 seconds of the finals. However, confusion ensued as a yuko was called after the Espana-based judoka was able to pin Gimena but the table officials deemed that it was an osaekomi (pin). After order was restored, the match continued. Lucero then executed a beautiful hip throw on last season’s silver medalist for an ippon to cap her dominant 2015 campaign with a UAAP gold medal.
