Cuban judoka Maylín del Toro managed to climb the podium this Saturday at the Grand Slam in Budapest, Hungary, and thus offered Cuba its first medal in the strong competition.

The Antillean conquered the bronze metal in the 63 kilograms (kg) by beating by ipon in the fight for one of the third places against the British Gemma Howell, according to opinion the Cuban News Agency (ACN).

To get there, Del Toro prevailed in the preliminary rounds against Gere Van Dem Berg of the Netherlands and local Brigitta Varga, but then caved to Brazilian Katleyn Quadros and had to go to the playoffs.

Already in this case, she surpassed the Canadian Catherine Beuchemin, which allowed her to compete for bronze against Howell and finally get the medal.

The title went to the Japanese Megumi Horikawa, who beat the Polish Angelika Szymanska in the final, while the other bronze medal returned to the neck of the Venezuelan Anriquelis Barrios, victim of the Brazilian Quadros.

medalists of the 2nd day at #JudoHungary pic.twitter.com/t864oMS87l

— Judo (@Judo) July 9, 2022

The other Cuban competing this Saturday was Magdiel Estrada, who finished fifth at 73 kg, according to the report.

In the fight for third place, Estrada gave in for Wazari against Azerbaijan’s Rustan Orujov and narrowly missed out on the podium despite his unbeaten lead in the semi-finals. He then fell against another Azerbaijani, Gidayat Heydarov, finally champion in Budapest, who sent him to discuss the bronze medal with his compatriot Orujov.

Arnaes Odelín also finished this Friday in fifth place, in the women’s 57 kg, while Danny Porte, who represented the Island in the men’s 60 kg, fell in his debut.

This Sunday, on the last day of the tournament, Cuba will have its main figures on the Hungarian tatami: the world and Olympic multi-medalist Idalis Ortiz (+78 kg), the equally stellar Iván Silva (90 kg), and the experienced Kaliema Antomarchi (78kg) and Andy Granda (+100kg).

Los primeros contrincantes de Ortiz, Silva, Antomarchi y Granda serán la serbia Milica Zaic, el bosnio Toni Miletic, la china Zhenzhao Ma y el ganador del combate entre el uzbeco Shokhruh Bakhtiyorov y el estadounidense Christian Konoval, respectively, de acuerdo con el despacho de the ACN.

After two days of combat, Cuba is in 14th place in the medal table with a bronze medal. The tournament is led by Japan with five titles, followed by Azerbaijan (1-1-1), Brazil (1-1-0), Belgium (1-0-0) and Hungary (1 -0-0).