Özbas Szofi came, saw and conquered. The Hungarian judoka defended her title in style at the European Judo Championships Seniors Tbilisi 2026 Saturday, winning the final over rising French star Melkia Auchercorne.
Coming off the tatami, Özbas was still stunned and had a hard time to realise what she just had done. “Everything happened so quickly that I barely had time to process it,” she said. “I’m still searching for the right words, to be honest, because it’s incredible how, in just a moment, something so big can happen… and it happened to me. I think I still need time for it all to sink in properly.”
Özbas oozed confidence all day and stuck to her strategy. “The whole day had a very positive flow for me,” the 2023 World bronze medallist noted. “From the very beginning, I felt positive, and I was able to draw a lot of energy from that. I just took it one match at a time. I didn’t want to rush myself. I focused on bringing myself together in every single moment.”
It was an important step not to let the pressure get to her and to approach this competition without the weight of expectation that comes with success.
“I didn’t think about what happened last year and I think it was one of the hardest parts of it,” she explained. “It was so hard to not focus on the bad things what happened but also not focus on the good things. Even if they are good, it cannot help me at the moment.”
Özbas had lost her only other bout against Auchecorne at the Grand Prix in Qingdao last September but it did not matter here, and today. “I think judo gives an opportunity for every fight to be equal and to start from zero. If I use it in a right way for example how I did it right now it can really help me and it gives me freedom. It doesn’t matter what happened last year. What’s important is, what’s happening right now. That was my tactic.”
Moving forward, Özbas remains calm and collected. “I don’t really have specific goals,” she shared. “I want to search for some kind of feelings what can help me and what was nice for me, for example like today. Today I was fighting against my thoughts sometimes but I said to myself I can do it even if my thoughts are saying different things in some moments. It worked out all together.”
Author: Tatjana Flade