Isabel Fernández

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

María Isabel Fernández Gutiérrez (born February 1, 1972 in Alicante ) is a Spanish judoka. She was Olympic gold medalist in judo in 2000, world champion in 1997 and six times European champion.

Career

Isabel Fernández won the bronze medal at the European Junior Championships in 1988 in the lightweight up to 56 kilograms. She stayed in this weight class until 1997, after changing the weight classes, she fought in the lightweight up to 57 kilograms from 1998. Fernández won her first Spanish championship title in 1993, further titles followed in 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2007.

In 1995 she won the silver medal at the European Championships in Birmingham. The following year bronze medals followed at the European Championships and the Olympic Games , and at the end of 1996 she won the Student World Championships . In 1997, after winning silver at the European Championships, she won the world title in Paris with a final victory over the Cuban Olympic champion from 1996 Driulis González . Her first European title followed in 1998 . Fernández first achieved a podium finish at a World Cup tournament in 1992 in Basel with second place. It was not until 1999 that she achieved her first World Cup victory in Paris, which was shortly followed by the second success at the tournament in Hertogenbosch. In 1999 she was able to defend her European championship title from the previous year in Bratislava , at the world championships she finished second behind Driulis González.

In 2000 Fernández won the World Cup in Prague. In the final of the Olympic Games in Sydney Fernández and González faced each other for the third time, Fernández managed to get revenge for 1999 and thus the Olympic victory. The following year she won her third European title and at the world championships she received the bronze medal. In March 2002 she won three World Cup tournaments in a row in Prague, Warsaw and Rotterdam, and she won a bronze medal at the European Championships in Maribor. In 2003, she achieved her fourth European Championship victory in Düsseldorf , but she only achieved seventh place at the World Championships in Osaka. In 2004 she won four tournaments; In addition to the World Cup tournaments in Sofia and Rome, she also won the Paris tournament and in Bucharest she defended her European title . At the Olympic Games in Athens she was defeated by the German vice world champion Yvonne Bönisch in the first round . In the hope round Isabel Fernández then fought her way through to the battle for bronze, but was defeated by the Cuban Yurisleidy Lupetey and thus reached fifth place. After two bronze medals at the European Championships in 2005 and 2006 , she won her sixth continental title in 2007 . She went to the World Championships in Rio de Janeiro not only as the reigning European champion, but also as a three-time World Cup winner. Fernández reached a world championship final again after eight years, but was defeated there by the North Korean defending champion Kye Sun-hui .

In the ten years since the introduction of the 57-kilogram class in 1998, Fernández had won six titles and three bronze medals at European championships; only in 2000 she had not competed; In 2008 she lost to the Austrian Sabrina Filzmoser in the final . At her fourth Olympic participation in Beijing in 2008 , she retired early and finished ninth.

Web links


personal data
SURNAME Fernández, Isabel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fernández Gutiérrez, María Isabel (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish judoka
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1972
PLACE OF BIRTH Alicante