The second and last day of the Anadia European Junior Cup brought plenty joyful moments to all, especially to Sofia MAZZOLA who, at last, took gold in the -48kg category, claiming one of the three gold medals for Italy. Notably, the country finished on top spot of the overall medal standing.
Despite Mazzola being a junior European silver medallist herself, today’s gold did not come by easily at all. First up was Lara STOFBERG (NED) taking a defeat from the Italian as she landed of a well combined ouchi-gari – uchi-mata effort. EYOF and cadet European winner 2023, Marta BEORLEGUI OSES (ESP) was up next to challenge Mazzola, who pulled her way through in golden score. A waza-ari difference against Morgane ANNIS (FRA) booked Mazzola into the final, where cadet world champion, Aitana DIAZ HERNANDEZ was waiting on the other side. This time, it was her tactical skills that helped the Italian judoka to finally win her first ever junior European cup gold. She was thrilled to say the least;
It is my third final here and I finally I won the gold medal. I want to thank my coaches and colleagues and I want to thank my family too.
The weekend produced an extremely competitive field across the juniors as nine countries took at least one gold medal. Besides Italy’s three gold, France, Spain and Austria all shared two glory a piece. The host nation’s summed a single gold, a silver and two bronze medals.
Congratulations to all medallists! Next event: Poznan Junior European Cup 2024.
Author: Szandra Szogedi