It seems like it has barely been a moment since the spotlight was on the Croatian Judo Federation, but we are back on Balkan shores as Dubrovnik hosts the Senior European Cup 2023.
This weekend over the 15th and 16th of April, over 300 athletes will compete in the Sportska dvorana “Gospino polje”.
For the hosts, Croatia, they have some front runners in their heavyweight categories, seemingly giving them a great chance of some golden glory on the second day. Senior European Championship medallist Karla PRODAN and Petrunjela PAVIC will battle it out in the -78kg category, the 2022 winner Helena VUKOVIC will look to defend her gold medal in the +78kg weight.
A somewhat surprising entry among a strong German entry is double world medallist, Karl-Richard FREY. It has been a few years since the former major threat medalled on the IJF World Tour or European Tour for that matter, but what we can be sure of from this athlete is some terrific technique and some strong opposition in the form of Marko KUMRIC (CRO) and world ranking list climber, Daniele ACCOGLI (ITA).
Aside from the better-known top seeds and the home front, further down the ranks, without any points in fact, is the U23 European bronze medallist Nadezsa PETROVIC (SRB). Continental medallist at multiple ages as an -52kg athlete, she actually took the gold medal in this event back in 2020, but this edition she will arrive in the -57kg category.
The live draw will take place on Friday 14th of April and can be found, along with both days of competition, at live.ijf.org.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen