Tsunoda loves her armlocks
- June 7, 2021
- 6:27 am

Japan’s Natsumi Tsunoda started off the day ranked No. 28 among the players competing in the 2021 Hungary World Championships. So, she was far from the favorite.
Tsunoda’s judo is a bit unusual for a Japanese. Most Japanese female players opt for osaekomi turnovers when doing newaza. But Tsunoda prefers juji-gatame, which she used to great effect against her first three opponents.
The other technique that she likes is a traditional tomoe-nage. This is seldom seen in competition, where yoko-tomoe-nage is more common. She had used tomoe-nage in her opening match, against Milica Nikolic of Serbia, before finishing her off with juji-gatame. It was also with tomoe-nage that she defeated the top favorite, Distria Krasniqi of Kosovo, in the semifinal. In fact, she threw Krasniqi twice with this technique for waza-ari-awasete-ippon.
In the final, against her compatriot Wakana Koga, she used tomoe-nage to get the first score. Later, she turned Koga over with a sumi-gaeshi while Koga was on the ground, and proceeded to attack her with juji-gatame. The referee called matte, asked for a video review, and determined that the sumi-gaeshi was in fact a score. And with that, Tsunoda got waza-ari-awasete ippon, and the gold medal.
Tsunoda, already 28 years old, had gotten a -52kg silver medal at the 2017 Budapest World Championships (at -52kg). In her second attempt, also in Budapest but at -48kg, she finally got the top prize.