The first day of competition at the EUROPEAN JUDO CHAMPIONSHIPS SENIORS in ZAGREB (CRO) went very much to the liking of Sezer HUYSUZ, a former a two-time Olympic participant (2008, 2012) and European Championship medallist, who has been President of the Turkish Judo Federation since 2016 and is a current member of the EJU Executive Committee. Three TJF-athletes – Tugce BEDER (-48), Salih YILDIZ (-60) and surprise contender Muhammed DEMIREL (-66) – have proceeded to the final block, with Beder and Yildiz both fighting for bronze and 21-year-old Demirel facing none other than Olympic silver medallist Vazha MARGVELASHVILI (GEO) in his first major (senior) gold final.
How strong do you think the Turkish team is at this European Championships?
Sezer Huysuz: “We are hoping for three to four medals. I’m also surprised that things are going so well today. If things go really well, we’ll have three medals to our name by this evening.”
These successes are not entirely unexpected, as Turkey has already won six medals at its home Grand Slam in Antalya (1 x silver, 5 x bronze). How satisfied are you with your performance in the Olympic year so far?
Huysuz: “Our home tournament, during the Ramadan period, was challenging in terms of organisation, but a complete success on all fronts. We hosted three Japanese Olympic champions, the Abe siblings and Takanori Nagase, as well as triple Olympic champion Teddy Riner, and all four of them lived up to their role as favourites. With 628 participants from 93 nations, the entry result exceeded all our expectations. And our team also won six medals. We want to continue in this vein. The crowning glory would be an Olympic medal. We have been waiting 24 years for a third Olympic judo medal (in total) since Hüseyin Özkan won gold in Sydney in 2000. In Paris we have realistic medal hopes in at least three weight categories, -81, -90 and +78. And I can already make one promise: We will be extremely strong in Los Angeles 2028. From today’s perspective, we are definitely good for four or more medals there. That would be an ideal farewell for me as Federation President (laughs).”
Presidential elections are due again this autumn. This means you will you be running again?
Huysuz: “Yes, I would like to continue until 2028. My journey is not over yet! More Olympic medals to come…”
Author: EJU Media