Yesterday, double Olympic champion, Lukas KRPALEK was present in the Junior European Judo Championships in Prague, awarding the medallists and congratulating the Czech medallist, Adam KOPECKY.
The great success and growth of the sport in the Czech Republic has attracted attention from their national Olympic Committee and today we had the honour of speaking to their president, Mr Jiri KEJVAL.
I have come here to see the Junior European Judo Championships, judo is becoming more and more popular in the Czech Republic because of the double Olympic champion and now we have lots of young athletes and juniors. Yesterday we had a fantastic result here and I want to be here to see what young talent we have, the future stars for the Paris and Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Anton SIEKEL, president of the Slovak Olympic Committee was also invited to attend these championships and was pleased to be welcomed after a successful EYOF event this summer.
We have a very close relationship and have for years. I feel very much at home here, but especially during this event. As usual the Czech federation have prepared an event to the highest level so I am unsurprised to see how happy the athletes and delegations are. It is not only a good presentation for their judo federation but all of the Olympic family.
We have seen many athletes competing this week who were also present in the European Youth Olympic Festival in Slovakia.
We recently hosted EYOF in Slovakia and I think this is so important for these athletes to have this experience in multi-sport events, now they can have another opportunity to show how prepared they are to have reached another level, in these European championships and worlds.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen