German Championships at European Open in Sofia

A team of 20 German judoka will appear at the first European Open of the season, in Sofia. The 7 men and 13 women will try to book a victory. The last winners in Sofia were Carolin Weiss and Romy Tarangul in 2014. Never a German man won in Sofia. Perhaps a good challenge for Dominic Ressel who claimed his first German title U81kg last Sunday.

In this edition many medallists of last weekend’s German Championships will fight in the Bulgarian capital.

German finalist Philip Graf fights U60kg, Manuel Scheibel who won silver as well U66kg. German Finallist U73kg Julian Kolein starts U73kg, last year he finished seventh.Last year none of the German fighters won a medal, time to make that up.

In the women’s division four fresh German will fight in Sofia: U48kg Katharina Menz and on Sunday all German champions Miriam Butkereit (U70kg), Maike Ziech (U78kg) and Carolin Weiss (+78), the winner in 2014. Weiss will start in a field of 15 athletes.

There are medal chances for the German team as the field in Sofia contains only a few top 10 athletes. Fifth ranked Johanna Mueller may face Korea’s best ranked woman Kim Jan-Di. Mueller wasn’t too happy about her silver performance last week where she lost to young Theresa Stoll. In Sofia twin sis Amelie Stoll will fight.