Teenagers Tihea Topolovec and Bilal Ciloglu win in Sarajevo

Akos Bartha of Hungary won the gold medal in the category U60kg. It was his first European Cup victory. He lost the final in 2015 in Sindelfingen, now he won in Sarajevo. Victor Leboedec lost the final this time, he was the winner in Bratislava last year. Turkish Bilal Ciloglu captured gold in the final U66kg after he defeated Denis Jurakic of Serbia in a field of 25 athletes. Ciloglu is just 17 years young. He was European Cadet Champion U18 in 2015 and Turkish senior champion in 2016.

Serbian Milan Nikolic won the final U73kg against Russian Milan Tokarev. Serbia was the most efficient country in the men’s division with two gold medals, two silver and two bronze, followed by Hungary.

In the women’s category Nazlican Kilic opened the gold rush of Turkey. In an all Turkish final Kilic defeated Gulkader Senturk U48kg. In the final U52kg Turkish Irem Korkmaz lost the final against Croatian talent Tihea Topolovec who’s just 17 years young and became the second youngest European Cup winner ever for her country. Only Barbara Matic was a few days younger in 2012, also in Sarajevo. Topolovec was surprised herself: "I didn’t expect today’s result when I was coming here. This is my first European Cup for seniors ever and I’m really happy to win the gold here. The competition was really hard during the day for me, especially as this is senior level and I’m still cadet. I will also do a few more European Cups and I’m really looking forward to fighting in the beginning of April in Croatia, when European Cup will be held in Dubrovnik.”

In the category U57kg Anna Borowska was the strongest woman. In the final she defeated Andreja Leski of Slovenia. Borowska won 5 matches for the gold medal.

The last category of the tournament was for women U63kg where Andreja Dakovic of Croatia decided the medal table for women where Croatia took its second gold. Dakovic defeated Ummuhan Kabak of Turkey, otherwise Turkey would have been the best nation among women in the Bosnian capital. Now Croatia passed both Turkey, Poland and host Bosnia Herzegovina. But in the overall standing Turkey won the most medals. Bilal Ciloglu was also the second youngest ever Turkish judoka to win a European Cup. Nurcan Yilmaz won the European Cup in Istanbul in 2009 at the age of 17 as well, just a few days younger as Ciloglu today.