Azerbaijani
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Estonian
Finnish
French
Georgian
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Ukrainian
Author: Tatjana Flade
Belgium’s very first mixed team has created a sensation at the European Judo Championships Seniors in Podgorica, Montenegro by advancing to the bronze medal match. They first beat the Netherlands before losing to Italy in the quarterfinal but then the Belgians overcame hot favorites France in the repechage and are fighting for bronze.
“This is crazy. We are just a small team and we don’t have any substitutes. We are here for the first time and to beat France and to fight for a medal is just wow”, Olympic bronze medallist Gabriella Willems said. “Maybe because we are here for the first time we went in a bit more relaxed,” she continued. “Except for Matthias Casse, we didn’t do too well in the individual events and now we are maybe extra motivated to succeed.”
However, teammate Toma Nikiforov is not too surprised by Belgium’s fantastic team debut. “That is not actually a surprise because when we signed up for the team, we didn’t do that just for the experience or to have fun,” the seasoned competitor noted. “Sure, we want to have fun, but we also want a result. Seeing the draw, we knew it was going to be difficult as the Netherlands are strong.
“Today, we have proved that we are among the best. We are showing not only to Belgium but to the whole world that even a small country has great chances. We beat France and everyone knows that they have one of the best judo teams in the world. To beat them is a big thing for a small country like Belgium,” he added.
“It’s for the first time we have a mixed team,” new Federation President Sebastien Bonte said. “There were men’s and women’s teams and we had a men’s and a women’s team since the end of the 90s. But we’ve never had mixed teams.
“We had always good athletes but the individual programs and the Flemish and the French speaking coaches had to coordinate their agendas for creating a mixed team and that never happened,” Bonte explained.
Nikiforov noted that the athletes from the Flemish part and the French speaking part of the country are training together only two or three times a week. A mixed team consists of three women and three men. The format has been introduced at the European Championships in 2018.
Author: EJU Media