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The IJF Team snatched their bronze medal in the Mixed Team European Championships 2025, leaving no room for doubt about who should receive the award, winning four consecutive contests.
Karen GALSTIAN (IJF) was in trouble against Bilal CILOGLU (TUR) in the opening contest, picking up two shidos, but as the clocked ticked away, he managed to transition in to ne waza from a sumi gaeshi attempt by Ciloglu, securing the osae komi and first point for the IJF team.
Next up, Tamara LISHCHENKO (IJF) was collecting scores in her contest against Fidan OGEL (TUR). An initial yuko score was given to Ogel, using te waza to control Lishchenko to the ground, however she woke something in her opponent. Lishchenko made a comeback with ko uchi gari to even the score before doubling her loot with o uchi gari. With only 33 seconds left on the clock, she executed a waza ari-scoring harai maki komi and landed in the osae komi, remaining there until she had an ippon win.
Mansur LORSANOV (IJF) had a much tougher time against the recent Tbilisi Grand Slam winner, Vedat ALBAYRAK (TUR), but in golden score found a solution, throwing his opponent with sumi gaeshi to score waza ari. There was only one point left to make it a win, and that came from Mariia IVANOVA, throwing Hilal OZTURK (TUR) with a huge harai maki komi.
Winning the final point feels incredible. I’m proud of myself, proud for my team, my family, my country, and my friends. This win is not just for me, it’s for all of them. I felt pressure going into the contest as it was my first European Championships and I was very nervous but my team supported me all the way and thanks to them, I was able to win.
The team were so proud of Ivanova, the current European Champion in -81kg, Danil LAVRENTEV stated,
Today was unbelievable. Maria was a hero for me. Honestly, I felt very bad because after winning the European Championships I wasn’t fully ready today. I was a little bit tired, but we as a team, gave everything we had.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen