Portuguese Judo Rochele Nunes wins bronze at the Grand Prix of Zagreb

A judoka Rochele Nunes (+78 kg) won the bronze medal at the Grand Prix in Zagreb, winning in her fifth match with Polish Kinga Wolsczak, by waza-ari.

Rochele Nunes, who was a mother in May 2025, returns three years later to the podium of a top-class competition, with the Grand Prix standing above the European Open, in which she won medals this year in Prague and Benidorm.

The last time Benfica's judoka had reached medals in international high school competitions was in October 2023, when he won the medal at Abu Dhabi Grand Slam.

In Zagreb, Judoca, born in Brazil and who started to represent Portugal from 2019, won four out of five fights, the last front to Wolsczak, with a waza-ari at 01.50 minutes of the four minutes.

Before, Rochele Nunes, who in Zagreb counted on Pedro Soares as coach, had reached the semifinals, after winning the Ukrainian Ruslana Bulavina (ippon), Italian Erica Simonetti (ippon, for accumulation of punishments) and Tunisian Siwar Dhawedi (two waza-ari and their ippon).

In the ‘half’, in front of Australian Sydnee Andrews, Rochele Nunes lost by ippon and was then relegated to the bronze fight.

On this third and last day in Zagreb, for the heaviest categories, Portugal also had Jorge Fonseca (-100 kg), two world champion in 2019 and 2021 and Olympic bronze in Tokyo2020, but the Judoca of Sporting lost in the second match.

Fonseca, who had won his debut match, was out of evidence for losing at an early stage of the picture in the eighths of the final, before Dzhafar Kostoev of the United Arab Emirates, by ippon, already in the extension.

In the Croatian capital, the bronze of Rochele Nunes joins Miguel Gago (-66 kg), on Friday.