The 2018 Junior World Judo Championships at the Bahamas showed progress for Junior athletes across Europe. Although, only Russia managed to win a medal at the mixed team event, the total number of 39 individual medals were won across 21 nations.
This is not only 4 medals more than in 2017 for instance, but also 3 more nations taken medals past week in compare to previous years. Italy, for example, made a significant improvement from one bronze in 2017 to 3 gold medals in Nassau. The Netherlands added an additional medal to their return from last year. Ukraine gone from no medal to nailing a gold by superstar Bilodid. The quintet which includes Serbia, Poland, France, Croatia and Denmark also drew a new benchmark of medal expectations for the future. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan had to settle for less at the Bahamas than in Zagreb last year, however, the overall medal collections clearly shows European progress and real promises for the majority of nations across the map. Congratulations to all medallist and all effort from all EJU members.