In an impressive performance, Veljko VARNICIC of Serbia managed to continue his major medal collection, adding a European Youth Olympic Festival gold to his Cadet European Championship win a month ago.
It was a strong start, but after his best friend and team mate, Nikola OBRADOVIC, was injured in the contest before him, he found himself struggling to focus and became stressed.
I didn’t feel so much pressure coming in to this competition, but I did feel it in me second match, my best friend, we train at the same club and he was competing right before me, he had a real fight and landed quite badly on his head. I had to go on the next fight, I was nervous, I was about to cry, and I thought I need to control myself. Aleksandar KUKOLJ came down to be with me, tried to control me and he really helped me so I want to say thank you, I actually want to say that this medal is for my friend, I hope he is doing good!
Varnicic had given a champions performance throughout the day, but so had Cadet bronze medallist, Vasil GAMEZARDASHVILI (GEO). The Georgian judoka was doing a stellar job at controlling the grips, preventing Varnicic from leading the contest as he had done prior, yet still with a minute left on the clock, there were no scores and both ceded two shidos.
With six seconds left on the clock, Varnicic managed a yuko score, stretching across his opponent with for uchi mata before dropping to his knee and driving, pulling in the opposite arm to ensure the shoulder turned. Or so we thought…
You know, that was a hard match, I knew we both had the two shidos but also that I was up on attacks, and honestly my plan was to make him take a third one because I didn’t know if I could throw. Then it ended it being a throw! I didn’t plan for it to be, that’s why I didn’t celebrate, I wanted to stay calm, I thought they might even remove it, but it was good!
Varnicic will continue his reign of the -73kg category, and next up for him will be the Cadet World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, at the end of August.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen