Matvey KANIKOVSKIY (AIN/-100) has already won the European Youth and Junior Championships. On Saturday, the 22-year-old also secured his first senior European Seniors title and could hardly have done it more impressively. In the semi-finals, the world number 5 took revenge on defending champion Zelym Kotsoiev for his defeat at the European Championships in Montpellier in November, and in the final he also put world number one Ilia Sulamanidze in his place.
Afterwards, the newly crowned European champion acted as if the European title wasn’t all that special. “To be honest, I don’t care so much about which tournaments and titles I win and whether that counts for much. It’s much more important to me which opponents I beat.”
On Saturday in Zagreb, it was the two best athletes currently in the category up to 100 kg. And there were still scores to settle with both of them. In Kotsoiev’s case, it was the defeat in Montpellier, while Matvey was 2:4 behind in the head-to-head against Sulamanidze, who is the same age. The two have known each other since their youth.
“The fight against Kotsoiev in particular was really challenging. I quickly fell behind and the spectators demanded an ippon. I already saw myself with one foot in the repechage,” admitted the European champion after the awards ceremony.
What happens next will be decided in the upcoming weeks. The only thing that is clear is that he will skip the Grand Slam in Dushanbe (TJK). Kanikovskiy is currently ranked third in the Olympic ranking for Paris. He has long been guaranteed a place in the seeding list.
Author: EJU Media