On the opening day of competition, first and foremost there was a silver medal for Luca Mamira of Hungary in the category under 40 kg. The Hungarian lightweight came into the tournament as the number one seed and did surely prove that she was worthy of that final spot, winning all of the preliminary rounds by IPPON and only narrowly losing out in the final, after a tough match, which went into Golden Score. Congratulations to Mamira on her third European Judo Cup medal this year, as well as a great performance.
Furthermore, a bronze medal was won by Croatian Ana Viktorija Puljiz in the -48 kg category. Last year, Puljiz was European Championships runner up in both the cadet and the junior division in the category under 44 kg. This year, she moved up to the -48 kg category, but has already gained ground in her new weight division - this weekend, she could celebrate her third European Judo Cup medal of the season.
In the category under 60 kg, Adam Safer of Austria ended his day with a 7th place.
On the second day of action, we saw an amazing performance from Adam Kopecky of Czech Republic who won the gold medal in the category under 73 kg. Kopecky had a terrific performance on the day and wasted no time on his way to gold, winning all of his matches by IPPON. Kopecky already won three European Judo Cup medals this year and will sure be among the favorites for the European Championships 2019.
In the category under 57 kg, Rosalie Woess of Austria ended her day with a 5th place. Woess had a good performance on the day and made it all the way to the semifinal, but in the end of the day just missed out on a medal.
Same thing applied for Woess’ teammate Lisa Tretnjak in the category under 63 kg. Tretnjak lost out to the later finalist Van Lieshout of the Netherlands in the preliminaries but came back strongly in the repechage. The Austrian did as well show good judo in the bronze medal match, but narrowly missed out on a podium spot. Nevertheless, a good performance from both Austrians, who we hope to see on the podium soon.
Congratulations, to all our athletes, both on the medals, as well as the good performances we saw this weekend! Next up for the cadet athletes, will be the European Judo Cup in Cluj-Napoca in Romania next weekend - Stay tuned.
