Following a tremendous senior European Championships in Lisbon, some of Europe’s top athletes took no break and went straight on to Papendal, the Dutch National Training Centre. In total, 18 countries (16 from EJU and 2 non-EJU) with 108 players (40 from EJU, 2 non-EJU, and 66 from the Dutch Judo Federation) took part in the training camp.
Aside from the 66-strong Dutch team, included in the star-studded group were Odette GIUFFRIDA, Matthias CASSE, Peter PALTCHIK, Laris CERIC, Saeid MOLLAEI and 2021 European Champions Beata PACUT and Toma NIKIFOROV.
The Dutch Judo Federation did a very good job and did their best to minimise the possibility of contracting the Covid-19 virus. Every morning before training, antigen tests were performed on all camp participants, and at the end of each day, each competitor reported the players with whom they fought during training.
The sports quality of the training camp was very high in my opinion. Despite the difficult time of the pandemic and many organisational problems related to it, I highly appreciate the level of organisation of the first EJU training camp after a one-year break.
EJU Sport Director, Wieslaw Blach
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen