Karolina SIENNICKA won Poland’s only gold at the Poznan Junior European Cup 2024. The Polish team bagged another four bronzes to finalise their own tally. Meanwhile, Germany outclassed the majority, allowing them to finish on top of the medal table with a sum of three gold, two silver and five bronze medals.
Back to Siennicka, who spent 20 seconds to defeat her first opponent Skadi KOSTER (GER) looked unstoppable from the get go. Emma MELIS (FRA) gave a tough gig to the Polish judoka thought as Melis in fact took a waza-ari lead within the first minute. Shortly, Siennicka evened up the score board and a minute and a half into golden score she overcome Melis by her sangaku skills. The home favourite was back in shape for the quarter finals when defeating Aidan GASIMOVA (AZE) within 21 seconds. During the semis, Inna SHYNKARENKO (UKR) breathy secured an osae-komi against Siennicka who took it as a wake-up call and only went onto imbalance her Ukrainian opponent via a well controlled ashi-waza. Now, the Polish fighter was a single step way from the gold medal and she left no room for error when winning her final against Dana ABDIROVA (KAZ) took only 16 seconds. Siennicka’s impressive work in the -57kg category resulted a standing ovation at the Spostshall UAM.
A three-day training camp will now follow in Poznan. The next junior European cup will be in Lignano from 20-21 April.
Author: Szandra Szogedi