This weekend, Maribor hosts the final event of the junior season, the last European Cup in a series of 15 tournaments. Maribor is a familiar city for this generation of judoka. In 2023, it staged the European Youth Olympic Festival, and now, more than 400 athletes are eager to prove themselves one last time this season. Several categories look particularly challenging, including the -81kg division with around 60 competitors.
Slovenia is easy to reach for many teams, and Germany is travelling with an impressive group of 37 athletes. Serbia, Austria and Croatia are also sending large delegations. Although the event is primarily European, there are teams from Australia, Sierra Leone, the United States, Kyrgyzstan and Japan as well.
Maribor takes over from the city of Gradec, which hosted this tournament in the past two years. The number of participants seems to have increased by more than 30% compared to previous editions.
In the country that produced three Olympic champions, Urska Zolnir in 2012, Tina Trstenjak in 2016 and Andreja Leski in 2024, extra attention naturally goes to the -63kg category. The seeding list of this particular division is led by Ilariia Tsurkan (SLO). You can follow all actions throughout the weekend on JudoTV.com.
Author: Hans Van Essen