Event Review
– Four different countries won gold medals on day 3. (Georgia, Estonia, Ukraine and Russia (2).
– The gold medals for Elena Ivashchenko (+78) and Tagir Khaibulaev (U100) for Russia were the country’s fourth and fifth of the tournament, making Russia by far the most successful country at these Championships, taking over from The Netherlands last year.
– Russia tops the medal table with a total of eight medals: five gold, one silver and two bronze. On Sunday Russia won three medals: Elena Ivashchenko (1st +78), Tagir Khaibulaev (1st U100), Alexandr Mikhailine (3rd +100)
– Alexandr Mikhailine from Russia won his 10th medal at European Championships beating Andreas Toelzer (GER). He became European Champion for the fifth time.
– Ukraine had a good European Championships, finishing high on the medal table with one gold medal for Voldomyr Soroka and silver for Georgiy Zantaraya and Marina Pryshchepa today.
– Host country Georgia won a silver medal as Varlam Liparteliani again confirmed his reputation as difficult to beat, but couldn’t beat Andrei Kazusionok (BLR) in the final. On Saturday Levani Tsiklauri won the bronze U81kg while Nestor Khergiani also won bronze on Friday.
Most Bronze medals men
Robert van de Walle BEL 9
Nestor Khergiani GEO 7
Selim Tataroglu TUR 6
Detlef Ultsch GER 6
Wolfgang Zuckschwerdt GER 6
– Andrei Kazusionok from Belarus won the fourth gold medal for his country in the history of the championships. Other gold medallists were Rachad Mamedov 1997, Anatoly Laryukov 2002 and Siarhei Shundzikau 2006. Igor Makarov (+100) and Sviatlana Tsimashenko (U78) both finished third today, making a total of 31 medals for Belarus.
– Ukraine won its eighth gold medal by Maryna Pryshchepa. Genadiy Bilodid was the first to win gold for Ukraine in 2001. He also won in 2003. So far Marina Prokofieva was the only woman to win the gold for the Ukraine (2004), as Maryna Pryshchepa missed her chance.
– Yesterday Slovenia celebrated its second gold medal in the history of the European Championships, thanks to Urska Zolnir. In total Slovenia have won two gold medals, two silver, and 13 bronze including this year’s medal won by Aljaz Sedej.
– Gulsah Kocaturk from Turkey won her nation’s 27th European medal with her bronze +78kg, but only its fourth in the women’s category. Hulya Senyurt and Nese Sensoy (two medals) all won in the U48 kilogramme weight class.
– Only Lucie Decosse from France retained her European title. Decosse even changed weight category and could win again.
– The Netherlands won two medals today making five in total. Henk Grol lost his final as did Grim Vuijsters. Vuijsters won the first European Championship medal of his career.
– The Netherlands lost three finals for the first time since 1970 when Wim Ruska lost both his finals (Open and +93) as well as Martin Poglajen (U80).
– The Netherlands also missed three chances for another medal, as they lost three bronze medal bouts (Houkes, Gravenstijn, Willeboordse who all won an Olympic medal in Beijing). Spain, Germany and France also lost 3 bronze medal bouts.
– Martin Padar from Estonia finally won a European title. He has participated since 1999 (U100) and has already won four medals, but had failed to win the gold until today. In 2002 he lost in the final to Elco van der Geest (NED). This time he took his revenge against another Dutchman, Grim Vuijsters.
– Estonia now have 17 medals in total, two gold medals, five silver and 10 bronze. (Indrek Pertelson 1996, Alexei Budolin 2001)
– Latvia won two medals, Denis Kozlovs won bronze on Friday, and Jevgenijs Borodavko added another bronze on Sunday, making a total of eight medals for the Baltic nation since 1993. Vsevolods Zelonijs won the other five European medals. Latvia is yet to win its first gold medal.
– Poland’s heavyweights were both the heaviest in their category. Urszula Sadkowska weighed in at 162 kilogrammes and Janusz Wojnarowicz weighs 179.8 kilos.
– Lithuania won a bronze through Karolis Bauza. It was the third medal ever for Lithuania, Algimas Merkevicius won two European medals in 1997 and 1999.
– For the first time since 2003, Romania didn’t win a gold medal. But both Alina Dumitru (U48) and Daniel Brata (U100) were able to win bronze at this year’s championships.
– Ariel Zeevi (Israel) and Serbian Milos Mijalkovic debuted in 1996, earlier than any other participant but neither won a medal.
– Austria only won one bronze medal – Ludwig Paischer on Friday (U60). As next year’s European Championships organisers they will be eager to improve on that. Since 2004 they have always won more than one medal. In 2004 Paischer won the gold. In 2002 Austria only won bronze too. Austria has a long history in winning judo medals since 1951 (Robert Jacquemond).
– None of the Olympic gold medallists (Giulia Quintavalle, Alina Dumitru and Ole Bischof) were able to repeat their performances in Tbilisi.
– Natalia Kuzyutina (20) from Russia is the youngest European Champion this year. Esther San Miguel the oldest (34).
– Antonio Ciano won the 50th silver medal ever for Italy. Thirty for the women, twenty for the men. Italy have won 24 European gold medals.
– Hedvig Karakas from Hungary is the youngest medal winner at these Championships. Hungary was successful too, winning three medals, all different colours.
– Hungary won all their medals on Friday. Miklos Ungvari won his second European title after winning in 2002. It was the 11th gold medal for Hungary. Ten of them in the men’s category. Bertalan Hajtos and Miklos Ungvari both won two golds.
– Esther San Miguel of Spain won the gold today in the U78 weight class. It was the 24th gold medal ever out of 109 medals since 1954. Spain has had at least one European Champion in each of the last three years. In 2004 Spain had its best year with three gold medals.
– San Miguel (34) is the second oldest European Champion, Her compatriot Isabel Fernandez (35 in 2007) is the oldest female gold medal winner.
