Cuban judoka Del Toro wins bronze at Tbilisi Judo Grand Slam

Cuban judoka Maylín del Toro climbed onto the podium today in the 63 kilogram category at the Tbilisi Grand Slam, defeating Israeli Gili Sharir in one of the bronze medal matches.
 
 
At the Olympic Palace in the Georgian capital, the Cuban judoka delivered her best performance of the season, despite facing tough obstacles along the way, including competing against much higher rankings than her 25th place in the category.

In her debut, Del Toro dominated last year’s world runner-up in Abu Dhabi, Poland’s Angelika Szymanska, ranked eighth, promising 22-year-old Brazilian Nauana Silva, and Croatia’s Katarina Kristo, ranked fifth at the 2024 Paris Olympics and seventh, before falling in the semifinals to France’s Manon Deketer (17), a Grand Slam and Grand Prix judoka.

For the bronze, the Cuban rallied and defeated Sharir, the European runner-up two years ago, with a Waza-ari.

Del Toro’s bronze was Cuba’s second, following Jonathan Charón’s win yesterday in the 60 kilograms, a division in which Brazilian Michel Augusto took silver.