It was a huge commitment from Igor TSURKAN (UKR) in the -81kg final of the Ljubljana European Open 2025 against, scoring waza ari with uchi mata in the first half of the contest against Pawel DRZYMAL (POL). It looked like it could be a steep mountain to climb to bring himself back in the game but Drzymal stunned everyone with a hard o soto gari, the power blasting Tsurkan directly on to his back for an impressive ippon less than 10 seconds later.
The GILLY sisters in the -48kg category from France battled it out against one another twice in 2024, both taking a win each, and not he second day of the Ljubljana European Open, they found themselves rivalling for gold. Younger of the two, Coralie, put an early score on the board with tomoe nage, a score that won her a second European Open gold medal.
Daniel NIETO TRINIDAD (ESP) came close to not being in a final, in the earlier rounds his opponent was given the win, however it was decided by the referee commission that the contest must continue, and he managed to go in to the next round. Each win brought him to the -90kg final against Toni MILETIC (BIH). A yuko score was awarded to Miletic first, countering an attack from Nieto, then with just over a minute left, doubled his score, again catching Nieto in a weak position. After winning a European Open bronze and silver medal at home in Sarajevo, Miletic can now celebrate a great gold medal win in Ljubljana.
Lea METROT (FRA) has developed extraordinarily in the past year, claiming three European Open gold medals and her first IJF World Tour medal, a bronze in the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam. Metrot’s approach is confident and unwavering, so it was somewhat unsurprising when she put the first score on the board of the -52kg final against JUTNER Janka (HUN) with an uchi mata makikomi, however Juter evened the score shortly after with a deep ko uchi gari. It was at this point it became a real battle and for a moment looked as if Metrot was going to unravel, but in golden score she finally found her opening and won her fourth continental gold with juji gatame.
It was certainly a battle of strength in the -100kg between Adam BORCHASHVILLI (AUT) and Martin BEZDEK (CZE) who were struggling to find a smooth entry, but it was Borchashvilli who perservered with kata guruma to score the winning waza ari.
In the -57kg final, EYOF Champion and the 2024 Sarajevo European Open winner, 18 year-old Nika TOMC (SLO) have the home crowd something to cheer for. However she had extremely stiff competition with Binta NDIAYE (SUI), Dushanbe Grand Slam silver medallist. Though Tomc had a powerful start, it was the experience of Olympian Ndiaye that won out as she tied her opponent up in ne waza to take her first gold medal in her new weight category.
Rounding out an incredible Open event in Ljubljana were the heavyweight men. Today we saw the return of Mikita SVIRYD, now competing for Croatia, and immediately in to a final against Francisco SOLIS (CHI). His first international in three years and in a new weight category went extremely well but he was starting to lose steam against Solis, who in golden score took the +100kg gold.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen