Jano Ruebo claimed a gold medal for Germany in his weight class -73kg. It was not the only gold medal for Germany on the first day of the European Open in Sarajevo, as Sarah Mehlau also captured gold in the women’s division -70kg.
Mateja Stosic of Serbia fought Ruebo in the men’s -73kg final, and it looked like the contest was heading for golden score, but Ruebo perfectly timed a shoulder throw and caught Stosic cleanly. The Serbian had been pressing forward, and Ruebo stayed patient to strike at the right moment. Stosic had a strong tournament, surprising top seed Joshua Green in his first contest. Ruebo defeated Pongracz, Seknijašvili and Gabler to reach the final. It was another gold medal for Ruebo, who also won the European Open in Tallinn last year. At just 22 years old, he remains one of Germany’s brightest prospects in the -73kg category.
The winner was happy with his performance, his rival Alexander Gabler, also from Cologne, shares the room, “it’s hard to keep that separate but the fight is just minutes and for the rest we make each other stronger. I was not good enough at the German Championships last week, but this is satisfying and a great second medal at a European Open.”
Mukhamed Aloev (BRN) had a tough bronze medal contest against Serbia’s Tevdor Seknijašvili but won the match in the third minute by ippon. It was only the second ever medal for Bahrain at a European Open, following Askerbiy Gerbekov’s bronze in Madrid in 2022. Alexander Gabler (GER) led his match after countering Hungarian Balint Gombas, but Gombas came back with yuko after two minutes and levelled the score after four minutes. Gabler was close to scoring within the opening seconds but just missed out, yet after fifty seconds he managed to take over Gombas and steered him to ippon. Gabler waited for his moment and picked up a well-deserved medal.
Hungarian lightweight David Naji defeated Aleksa Nikolic for the men’s gold medal -60kg, scoring yuko and converting into oseikomi from which Nikolic could not escape. Naji, who won silver last year in Sarajevo, captured the gold this time. As the number one seed, he had a bye in the first round and went on to defeat Benjamin Caldwell (GBR) in the semi-final.
Gal Blazic (SLO) scored wazari halfway through regular time against Benjamin Caldwell (GBR) in the bronze medal contest and soon after secured victory by ippon. Serhii Kim (UKR) opened the scoring with a yuko in the first minute of his bronze medal match against Serbia’s Rastko Andjelovic, but Andjelovic responded quickly with a wazari from a sode-tsuri-komi-goshi. The contest was then up to Kim to find a way back, but Andjelovic held firm and took the bronze for himself.
Number one seed Michael Fryer of Great Britain lived up to expectations, scoring in the second minute of the -66kg final with o-uchi-gari against French opponent Driss Masson Jbilou. Fryer had also defeated Masson Jbilou earlier this year in Benidorm for bronze, and once again the British judoka came out on top. The 26-year-old Fryer showed his experience, managing the final moments confidently to secure his fifth European Open medal in five different cities. The British national anthem played proudly for Fryer on the podium.
In the all-Belgian bronze medal contest between Robbe Demets and Deny Altemirov, it was Demets who came out on top, scoring yuko within 90 seconds and repeating his bronze medal success from last year.
Patrick Weisser (GER) faced Bence Mathe (HUN) for the first time in their careers, and both judoka scored yuko in a closely contested match. The contest went into golden score, where Mathe dropped under Weisser and scored the second yuko, enough to claim his third European Open medal.
Tomorrow more action from the middle and heavyweight men in Sarajevo. Follow the competition on JudoTV.com
Judoka
Author: Hans Van Essen