Once again, the seeding has almost perfectly predicted the final block on the second day of the Cadet European Judo Championships 2022, however this wouldn’t be judo if there weren’t some surprises.
Italy have an extraordinarily strong team and will still have their time to shine in this afternoon as Michela TERRANOVA, Federico BOSIS and Gaia STELLA compete for bronze in the -52kg, -66kg and -57kg categories respectively. Terranova and Gaia the only number one seeds from their team remaining.
Another nation who may feel as if they have underperformed, especially following yesterday’s success is Azerbaijan, and now they will be left with only one of their athletes, Fidan ALIZADA in the final of the -57kg category. Though they still have potential for bronze gain, this won’t help to affect their standing in the medal table which will be put in jeopardy when France or Turkiye secure a gold.
In fact, the athlete stealing the show in these preliminaries with an incredible performance, is world ranked #49 Orus SINEM (TUR). She has dug in throughout the day, defeating seeded opponents to take her place in the -63kg final against the French number one seed, Doria BOURSAS.
The final block will commence at 17:00 local time and will be streamed live at www.eju.net.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen