European Cup in Sarajevo helps to get athletes in shape

This weekend 237 athletes will be in Bosnia Herzegovina to fight at the European Cup in Sarajevo. The event is held for the ninth time and since this year Sarajevo also organizes a European Cup for Juniors, held last March. The seniors and some juniors are in action in Sarajevo with a reversed line-up of categories with the heavier categories starting on Saturday and on Sunday the light weights are in action.

Judo in Bosnia is getting good traction led by Larisa Ceric, who is in the top of the heavyweight division, however she will not fight in Sarajevo, neither Aleksandra Samardzic will, but her sister Andjela will be fighting in the category U63kg.

Some of the categories will have some quality judoka with Margaux Pinot starting U70kg on Saturday and Croatian talent Karla Prodan in the grid U78kg. Morgane Duchene of France will try to get a good result in the heavyweight class.

The men’s U81kg class has 32 participants, U90kg 29 judoka mainly with Balkan judoka, but also Marc Odenthal of Germany and some French athletes. It will be interesting to see how some junior talents will anticipate in this weekend’s chances like Slovenian heavyweight Enej Marinic who impressed at the World Junior Championships in Zagreb last year.

The lightweights are also interesting to see this weekend with some strong Croatian, Bulgarian but also French athletes around. An interesting team from Belgium may have a hand in the medal table and also the Swiss will have a few good people in Sarajevo. Especially on Sunday the Dutch team can grab some medals. You can follow it this weekend from Bosnia Herzegovina.

The European Championships for juniors will take place in September in Sofia, the U23 Euros will be held in Gyor in Hungary.