Renata Zachova gives Czech judo golden hope for the future

At the European Cup for Cadets, Czech Renata Zachova (U52kg) became the first girl in the history who took a gold medal in front of the home crowd in Teplice. “Last year I was defeated in the second round but then I decided to change something. I promised to myself that next year I have to do much better”, Zachova said to the Czech Judo Federation.

“I decided with my coach to adjust my training. Actually I must admit that my coach, Jiri Stepan contributed a lot to this medal. He has been working really hard with me and I would like to thank him for that. In January he arranged a training camp for me in Kosovo, where I was able to practice more than a week with my idol Maljinda Kelmendi, double world champion in my category. She is unbelievably strong and after such experience it has begun somehow easier for me to fight in Cadet Cups”.

The hard work has begun to pay off. Renata won bronze in Spain and placed fifth in Turkey. “I have done quite a lot of work after the tournament in Antalya. I took part in the OTC in Nymburk and did a lot of great randori against the best women in the world”.

Due to her recent successes in Teplice she was seeded and had a first round bye. “I was quite nervous today and my first fight was perhaps the toughest one”, Zachova said. “But I managed to score twice and after that I was very confident in all of my following fights. My uchi-mata worked very well today and I managed to score several times with it”.

Zachova reached the final without any score against her. In the final against Lea Markloff (GER) she scored waza-ari with a beautiful uchi-mata. “After that score I was quite confident to win the match. The crowd in Teplice was really fantastic and supported me a lot in the last minute of the final. I would like to thank my fans a lot.”

After these results it is very likely that Zachova will be seeded in the Cadet European Championships and will have a good chance for a medal. “I would surely like to fight in the final block in Finland in July this year. I want to participate in one more European Cup before the Championships but I will also train hard in order to be ready”.

Renata is one of the biggest Czech judo hopes for the future and it is very likely that we will see her on podium regularly.