26 April 2013

Surprising start of second day of adidas European Championships

adidas European Championships

The 2013 adidas European Judo Championships in Budapest, Hungary, continued Friday with some surprises in the Preliminary Rounds of the men’s -73kg and -81kg as well as the women’s -63kg and -70kg.

In the women’s -63kg, top-seed Clarisse Agbegnenou of France had to overcome a challenge by Sweden’s Anna Bernholm in the quarterfinal and now will meet Edwige Gwend of Italy in the semifinal. Gwend sent Austrian Hilde Drexler to the repechage and has shown strong performances from her first match on today.

Marta Labazina of Russia cruised into the semifinal coming from pool C and is up against Tina Trstenjak from Slovenia who beat 2012 European silver medalist Yarden Gerbi of Israel in the quarterfinal.

Top seeded Kim Polling of the Netherlands dominated in the women’s -70kg in pool A and has to deal with Bernadette Graf of Austria in the semifinal. Laura Vargas Koch of Germany beat team- and training mate Iljana Marzok in an all-Berlin quarterfinal and now will face Linda Bolder of the Netherlands in the semis. Bolder saw 2012 European bronze medalist Juliane Robra of Switzerland off to the repechage. Robra is the only 2012 European medalist in the -70kg competing this year.

Rok Draksic of Slovenia showed strong performances in his new -73kg weight category to advance to the seminfinal. On the way, he eliminated not only multiple European medalist Dex Elmont of the Netherlands in round three but also Musa Mogushkov of Russia in the quarterfinal. Draksic, who was a bronze medalist in the -66kg one year ago at the European Championships, now has to deal with Frenchman Pierre Duprat in the semifinal. Duprat beat crowd favorite and 2012 Olympic silver medalist Miklos Ungvari of Hungary in the round of 16. Ungvari has moved up to the -73kg after the Olympic Games.  Dirk van Tichelt of Belgium proceeded to the semifinal with confident performances and will be up against Georgia’s Nugzari Tatalashvili. 2012 European silver medalist Volodymyr Soroka (Ukraine) was eliminated in the round of 16.

In the men’s -81kg, top seed and world number three Avtandil Tchrikishvili of Georgia had not much trouble to advance to the semifinal. There, he’ll face Joachim Bottieau of Belgium, the 2012 European bronze medalist in this category. In pool C, Croatia’s Tomislav Marijanovic put out strong performances to qualify for the semifinal. He defeated defending European silver medalist Murat Khabachirov of Russia and also Levan Tsiklauri of Georgia. His opponent in the semifinal is Ivan Vorobev of Russia. 

 

Judoka