The Senior European Judo Championships 2024 will commence Thursday, the 25th of April, kickstarting the three-day individual competition and concluding with the greatly anticipated Mixed Team event on the 28th.
Before the official draw was conducted by the Vice President of the European Judo Union, Mr Hrvoje LINDI, welcome words were given by President of the European Judo Union, Dr. TOTH Laszlo.
Two years ago, we spoke for the first time with Prime Minister Andrej PLENKOVIC about the possibility of organising the first European Judo Senior Championships in Croatia. Now this dream is becoming a reality, and a fully-fledged Olympic qualifying tournament at that. I can’t remember the field of participants at the European Championships ever being as high-calibre as this year. In this competition 47 of our 51 member associations have entered 427 athletes, among them four Olympic Champions, 17 World Champions, 35 European Champions and 51 judoka from the top 10 of the world ranking list. Please, join us for an unforgettable championships, thank you.
President of the Croatian Judo Federation, Dr Sanda CORAK continued the sentiments,
It is a great pleasure and honour to wish you all a big welcome to Zagreb, Croatia for the Senior European Championships 2024. After organising quite a lot of competitions, we are delighted to host this event. Thank you to Dr Laszlo Toth, who always supports our work, thanks to the Croatian Government for financial support (two people) and all of our sponsors, without you, we would not be able to manage this. This event is important for those who want to compete in the Olympic Games, I hope it will be held in the Olympic spirit, respecting all judo values. I wish you the best of luck!
Following the individual draw, the Mixed Team draw was conducted and the opening weight category drawn was the -90kg weight.
Find the draw online here at JudoTV.com.
Complimenting the draw, a press conference was held in honour of the event, welcoming athletes and coaches from Croatia to talk with invited media. Joining the line up were double World Champion, Barbara Matic of the -70kg category, European Championship and IJF World Tour medallist, Dominik Druzeta who will be competing at -81kg as well as the Women’s and Men’s National Coaches, Vladimir Preradovic and Dean Ilic.
President Toth stated,
I believe it is very important for the Croatian team to have a strong voice, to fight at home and show the spectators not only great results but a fighting spirit. I am really very happy to be member of this press conference, it is my opinion, that the most important thing in judo are the athletes and coaches. It is important to give them the floor, media are becoming more and more interested in their opinions and feelings.
Thank you for the opportunity and I really am so glad to be here with the Croatian top team, I wish success to you and the other 46 countries, that you have good preparation for the Olympic Games and wish that all of your dreams come true, and finally that in Paris, Croatia come back with a medal.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen