Europe have fought their way back in to the Junior World Championships 2024 on day three by claiming two gold medals, one silver and four bronze, Georgia and Austria finding victory with Luka JAVAKHISHVILI and Elena DENGG.
The -81kg men were up first and securing the first bronze medal was current Junior European Champion, Suleyman SHUKUROV (AZE), picking up two major championship medals as a first year junior demonstrates there is much more to come!
On to the final, Javakhishvili claimed he woke up on the morning of competition simply with the feeling he would become the World Champion, and as it turns out he had incredible foresight. Having reflected on his performance at the Junior European Championships, where he was forced to settle for the bronze medal, he was more than prepared to go the full distance and stand on top of the podium. It was a tough final against China’s WANG Jiangnan, who had proven himself a very physical athlete throughout the preliminary rounds, and put himself a waza ari up in the final, but in the end, it was a wheeling harai makikomi from Javakhisvili that sealed his fate.
It was an all-European podium in the -70kg category, with Kaja SCHUSTER (SLO) and Tayla GRAUER (GER) taking the bronze medals.
In the final, it was Dengg versus current Junior European Champion, April Lynn FOHOUO (SUI), the #4 and #2 seeds respectively. Both had given valiant efforts in their preliminary rounds and it was certainly the best of the best then fighting it out for the gold medal. Dengg explained that she had been disappointed to have missed out on the Junior European Championships this year but a choice made by the coaches due to knee injury ensured that she was fighting fit on day three in Tajikistan.
One of the most incredible things about this tournament is the unwavering support for all athletes in the crowd, knowledgeable and fanatic, it truly made the experience all the better for these newly crowned champions. It also fuelled many of the golden score contests, including the -70kg final. Knowing each other well, it was always to be a tricky contest, but after over seven minutes of contest time, Dengg was looking the more dominant of the two. Fohouo picked up two shidos and Dengg executed a well-timed o uchi gari for her title.
In the men’s -90kg category, Vadim GHIMBOVSCHI (MDA) secured a bronze medal, the first medal for his nation in this event, a combination of uchi mata, switching to ko uchi gari was perfect for an ippon win.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen