Nae Udaka

Nae Udaka ( Japanese 宇 高 菜 絵 Udaka Nae ; born March 6, 1985 ) is a former Japanese judoka . In 2014 she was world champion in lightweight, the weight class up to 57 kilograms.

Athletic career

Nae Udaka won the 2004 Fukuoka Cup . She won the title at the Universiade 2007 in Bangkok . In 2009 she reached the final at the Grand Slam tournament in Rio de Janeiro, where she was defeated by the Portuguese Telma Monteiro . At the end of 2009 she won the Southeast Asian Championships. In 2010 Udaka won the Japanese championships for the first time. At the 2010 World Championships in Tokyo, she lost to the British Gemma Howell in the round of 16 .

After two years without major international successes, Udaka won the Grand Slam tournament in Tokyo at the end of 2013 and reached the final at the Grand Slam tournament in Paris in early 2014 . In Paris she was defeated in the final against her compatriot Anzu Yamamoto , whom she had defeated in the semi-finals in Tokyo. In April 2014 Nae Udaka defeated Anzu Yamamoto in the final of the Japanese championships. At the 2014 World Championships in Chelyabinsk she defeated the Dutch Sanne Verhagen in the quarter-finals and the French Automne Pavia in the semifinals . She then won the world title by beating Telma Monteiro.

After a weaker year, Udaka reached the final of the Grand Slam in Tokyo at the end of 2016 and was defeated by her compatriot Tsukasa Yoshida . Udaka won the Japanese championships in 2017, but did not compete in the individual world championships. In 2018 she was again third in the Japanese championships.

Web links

• Tournament results at judoinside.com

Footnotes

1. ↑ Match balance at judoinside.com
2. ↑ Japanese Championships 2014 at judoinside.com