World and Olympic champions grace Oberwart history

This weekend the European Open will be held for men in Oberwart and women in Rome. The tournament in Oberwart has a rich history starting in Leonding in the eighties, to Vienna in the zeros and since 2011 in Oberwart.

Always well attended by Asian teams from Japan and Korea. 26 Japanese men won in Austria, 16 Koreans and host nation Austria is proud to have 11 winners. Topscorer is Patrick Reiter who won the tournament, in Leonding, four times. The topscorers for Japan are Hiroyuki Akimoto, last week good for bronze in Paris and Satoshi Ishii, the 2008 Olympic champion.

The most outstanding judoka of Korea was obviously Jeon Ki-Young, who won three times in Austria.

Ludwig Paischer claimed two titles in 2001 and 2006, in fact also the last title for an Austrian man.

The winners of the 2014 men’s edition were Japan (3 gold medals) with Kengo Takaichi U66kg, Georgia, winning 2 gold medals by Rekhviashvili and Gogotchuri. Brazilian veteran Luciano Corrêa and Hungarian Bor Barna who won the heavyweight title. Unfortunately this year no registration yet of Japanese nor Georgian men, but a very strong team from Brazil will compensate that. Also the team of China may surprise, perhaps with a medal U73kg by Sun Shuai. French Paris medal winners Walide Khyar, Kilian Le Blouch and Alexandre Iddir registered as well in a team of 18 French.

Also from the team of Kazachstan medals can be expected. For Russia Olympic champion Mansur Isaev will try to gain some points although there’s no way he will close the gap with Paris silver medallist Denis Iartcev.

Austria will start with 23 men with Lupo Paischer as captain. The 34-year old World and Olympic medallist claimed two titles in 2001 and 2006, in fact also the last title for an Austrian man.