22 June 2011

Malta welcomes European U17 talents

Malta welcomes European U17 talents

This week the European Cadet Championships will take place in Malta. Judoka U17 will be fighting in Cottonera and hope to qualify for the World U17 Championships later this year in Kiev (UKR).

366 Judoka from 40 countries are present in the sunny country. Malta has a tradition organising championships. In 2007 Valetta was the host city for the U17 European Championships. But also multi sport events like the Commonwealth Championships and Games for the Small States were held in Malta.
Russia´s dominancy over the years in this category is clear. In 2010 Russia won five gold medals, in 2009 in Koper (SLO) even nine.
Since 2000 Russia collected 47 gold medals followed by Azerbaijan (16) and Hungary, Germany and The Netherlands all enjoyed 10 European Champions.

In total twelve judoka have won two European cadet titles. Last year in Teplice three judoka prolonged their titles. Italian Odette Giuffrida won her second consecutive title U48kg. Nataliya Ilkiv (UKR) won her second title U52kg. Sakhavat Gadzhiev of Russia dominated the U55kg class after winning the U50 in 2009.
The youngest champions were 14 but for most of them that success came to early to perform in the senior categories.
Examples of former European Cadet Championships who are now booming at senior level are Greek World and Olympic champion Ilias Iliadis who was champion in 2002, Olympic Champion Elnur Mammadli (AZE) and many European senior Champions like Nataliya Kuzyutina (RUS), Arsen Galstyan (RUS) and Anett Meszaros (HUN).

In the past this Cadet Championships were held in the sixties and seventies. Famous cadet champions of that time were Jean Luc Rouge (FRA), Angelo Parisi (FRA) and Neil Adams (GBR).

Previous double winners
Abbie Cunningham (GBR) 2002, 2003
Esther Stam (NED) 2002, 2003
Elshan Karimov (AZE) 2003, 2004
Natalia Kuzyutina (RUS) 2004, 2005
Hedvig Karakas (HUN) 2005, 2006
Barbara Maros (HUN) 2006, 2007
Sarkhan Akhmadov (AZE) 2006, 2007
Shamil Magomedov (RUS) 2007, 2008
Arbi Khamkhoev (RUS) 2008, 2009

Watch the European U17 Championships starting at 11.00 o’clock on Friday with live video and live results

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You can find the programm and all outlines at the website of the organisation: https://sites.google.com/site/cejc2011/home

Watch the draw here:

Calendar

Judoka