With many entertaining finals during the second day, the Athens Junior European Cup has concluded in the Greek Capital. It was the first international tournament in Greece after 3 years and it finished with many compliments from the athletes and the officials who were hosted in ‘G. Stefanopoulos indoor Hall’.
Sports Commissioner of EJU, Branislav Crnogorac praised the organizers of the tournament.
Athens Junior European Cup was for sure on an excellent level. I could say that it looked more like a senior tournament, than a juniors. Organizers did a great job here, it was a top level tournament for sure. We move on step by step after the pandemic and we hope to have great tournaments as we move on. The fact that we had here in Athens elite teams like France or Israel and 27 countries with 300 athletes in total, is excellent. We saw top quality games in Athens.
On behalf of the Hellenic Judo Federation, President Dimitrios Michailidis said,
It was a tournament that was 100% successful. With so many competitors and 27 countries, we had an amazing weekend of action. We tried really hard to make this tournament a wonderful experience for the athletes, the officials and everyone who traveled to our country for this and I believe that we made it. And we are glad that our athletes won two medals.
About the second day of the competition, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Israel and Kosovo had a successful run, with Israel after two days of competition, leaving with 9 medals in total (4 golds, 1 silver and 4 bronze), while Turkey had 8.
Junior Men
Stanislav KORCHEMLIUKof Ukraine and Magerram IMAMVERDIEV from Azerbaijan competed in an exciting final at -81kg category. It was Imamverdiev who found the way to win the gold medal 25 second before the end of the final making up a waza-ari.
After having an operation on my knee I trained hard and I managed to win the gold medal. Now I will fight only for gold on every tournament.
The bronze medal went to two athletes of Czech Republic. Filip Ivanka and Adam Kopecky managed to secure a spot on the podium.
In -90kg, Roy SIVAN of Israel and Cem DEMIRTAS of Turkey managed to reach the final after having an amazing tournament. It was Sivan who won the gold by ippon at 2:45 against the Turkish athlete who came close seconds before to win the final, but he ended up with the silver. Aidar ARAPOV of Kazakhstan won the bronze medal by ippon against Vugar TALIBOV of Azerbaijan, while Maksims DUINOVS of Latvia followed him on the podium after winning Ryan RIJKSEN SALMAN of Great Britain on the second bronze medal match.
Ruslan NASIRLI of Azerbaijan and Benjamin MATASEJE of Slovakia were the two finalists of the -100kg category. None could find a way to win the final after 4 minutes of competition and during golden score Mataseje managed to win the gold by ippon. Two French athletes competed for the bronze medal. Yann RIGAUD and Maxence BORDIN hoped that they will be in the gold medal match, but they had to fight for the bronze instead. Rigaud had the lead, but a determined Bordin found the way and won the medal by ippon. Zhurkam SHUKURBEKOV of Kazakhstan won the other bronze beating Sidar AKKUS of Turkey by ippon.
Huseyn MAMMEDOV of Azerbaijan and his compatriot Kanan NASIBOV were the last in the tournament to fight for a gold medal in +100kg. It took just over 2 minutes for Nasibov to win the gold which was the third for Azerbaijan during the tournament.
Ι had a hard training camp and it paid off. Now I m focusing on winning the gold in European and World Championships this year.
Junior Women
-48k.Merve Azak of Turkey after a tough battle managed to win the gold medal in the category against Swedish Tara Babulfath. Bronze medals were won by Bulgaria’s Anastasiia Balaban and Cagla Serdar of Turkey.
-52k.Tatum Keen of Great Britain and Nikolina Nisavic reached the finals quite easily and the British found an early point by waza-ari to take the lead. Nisavic attacked and she equaled just 1 min. before the end of the final. The gold medal would be decided on golden score and it was Nisavic who made it by ippon.
o fight for a gold medal. It took just over 2 minutes for Nasibov to win the gold which was the third for Azerbaijan during the tournament.«Ι had a hard training camp and it paid off. Now I m focusing on winning the gold in European and World Championships this year» said Nasibov.Guylan Alleyne of France and Maor Klein of Israel won the bronze
Junior Women
The -48kg Merve AZAK of Turkey after a tough battle managed to win the gold medal against Swedish Tara BABULFATH. Bronze medals were won by Bulgaria’s Anastasiia BALABAN and Cagla SERDAR of Turkey. In the -52kg category Tatum KEEN of Great Britain and Nikolina NISAVIC reached the finals quite easily and the British found an early point by waza-ari to take the lead. Nisavic attacked and she equaled just 1 minute before the end of the final. The gold medal would be decided on golden score and it was Nisavic who made it by ippon. Erza MUMINOVIQ of Kosovo won the bronze medal, the first for Kosovo. Yarder RAAB was the other bronze medalist after winning by ippon Kinga KLIMCZAK of Poland.
-57kg Fationa KASAPI of Kosovo and Aysenur KARADAG of Turkey played the final. Kasapi was the one in attack during the 4 minutes of the final and she won with a waza-ari just two seconds before the end.
I am so happy because this is my first gold medal. It was a wonderful experience and I want to thank the organizers, my team and everyone for such an amazing event.
Maelenn COTTARD of France and her compatriot Katie PELAMATTI won the bronze.
Author: Konstantinos Efthymiadis
Judoka
Author: EJU Media