Montenegro take two gold at Junior European Cup in Ploiesti

The judo juniors of Montenegro won the medal table at the European Cup for Juniors in Ploiesti in Romania. At last test of the season in advance of the European Championships in Malaga in September, two judoka of Montenegro won the gold on Sunday. Minaly the Balkan nations did good business as also Croatia finished second with two gold medals. Israel and Moldova also won two gold medals.

The first gold of the day was for Serbia where Anja Obradovic snatched the victory in the women’s U63kg class. Obradovic was the youngest winner of the tournament, aged 16. She defeated Emily Burt of Canada in the final in a category with 22 young women including Emilia Kanerva of Finland, also just 17, who won the bronze. 22 is quite a difference with the twelve women fighting U70kg where Jovana Pekovic secured the gold in her final against Loriana Kuka, the Swiss talent.

Raz Hershko the niece of the successful Israel coach won gold U78kg defeating another silver Canadian judoka, Mina Coulombe. Kitty Nagy of Hungary took the first stage of the podium +78kg after Nagy overcame Tina Radic of Croatia.

Croatia won gold though in the men’s U81kg by Dominik Druzeta. Druzeta prevented a third victory for Montenegro as in the final he bested Arso Milic who won the tournament last year. 21 Young men in this category, 18 U90kg. Marko Bubanja is getting into shape with another victory for his new nation Montenegro. He won his final against Oleksii Babenko, the youngest finalist of the weekend (17). Louis Krieber-Gagnon of Canada and Johannes Pacher (AUT) took gold. Austria won gold U100kg which is more their weight class. Aaron Fara shines this season with fine victories and this one in Ploiesti goes into the books as well. Fara defeated Luca Kunszabo of Roumania, last year's winner John Jayne (USA) finished with bronze this time. Harun Sadikovic is favourite for the heavyweight title. The 20-year old Bosnian grabbed the gold against Enei Marinic of Slovenia.

The host nation Romanian won 11 medals, 1 gold for Marcel Cercea, three silver and 7 bronze. At 16-17 September the individual Junior European Championships take place in Malaga.