The final junior European Judo Cup was held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, last weekend where the Ukrainian team topped the medal table with 3 gold, 2 silver and 7 bronze medals. Nevertheless, the host nation finished right behind, with 3 gold and 7 bronze medals, bringing their utmost performance to the home crowd. Georgia, as expected, picked up a few hardware too with the total number of 7 medals (2-3-2).
The first home gold came in the -60 kg category from Mircea TOMESCU (ROU) who won all of his four contests by Ippon. Lucian BORS DUMITRESCU (ROU) continued to widen the golden tally when winning the -66 kg category. He faced Adil OSMANOV (MDA) in the final. The third and final glory came from Adrian SULCA (ROU), whom excelled in the -73 kg category when defeating Claudio NUNES DOS SANTOS (LUX) in the final.
The Georgian girls delivered what was expected apart from the final outcome of the -70 kg category, where Tbilisi Grand Prix bronze medallist, Mariam TCHANTURIA (GEO) led her fight with a waza-ari score against Matilda NILSSON (SWE). However, towards the last minute of the contest, the Swedish judoka revenged to finish the final and gain Sweden one and only medal for the weekend. Besides the yellow-blues, Russia, Hungary and Italy also picked up a gold apiece. Congratulations to all medal winners. The next competition will be the Junior European Championships which will take place in Vantaa, Finland, in a few weeks time.
