Israel with two finallists at first day European U23 Championships

Israel will see two athletes in the finals at the European U23 Championships in Tel Aviv. Adi Grossman and Tohar Butbul will have the full support of the packed crowd, but will have to face severe opposition in the final.

Serbian lightweight Milica Nikolic qualified for the final U48kg. Her opponent will be Hungarian Junior champion of last year Reka Pupp.

Romanian Larisa Florian defeated Katinka Szabo (HUN) with a small difference and will be fighting Distria Krasniqi of Kosovo who sent Fabiola Pidroni (ITA) to the bronze final.

Adi Grossman of Israel reached the final U57kg after she defeated 17-year old Jorien Visser (NED) on penalties in the semi final. Her opponent will be Theresa Stoll of Germany. The two twin sisters had to fight eachother in the semi and Theresa won this contest.

Russian Kamila Badurova defeated Geke van den Berg (NED) in the semi final U63kg and qualified for the final against 2015 European Champion Lucy Renshall of Great Britain who defeated Magdalena Krssakova (AUT) in the golden score with a jumping uchimata.

Csaba Szabo defeated his teammate Akos Bartha of Hungary in the semi final U60kg. In his third U23 European appearance he finally takes a guaranteed medal. He will have to face Russian Sakhavat Gadzhiev who defeated Kimran Borchashvili (AUT). Sakhavat can win his third different European title. He already won the Cadet and Junior title previously and now seems to make the journey U23 years.

U66kg Denis Vieru of Moldova tried out all his opponents with nice techniques and won them all including the semi final against Valiyev (AZE), now in the final he will fight Manuel Scheibel of Germany who defeated Mathias Czizsek (AUT).

Perhaps the most extreme final will be that one U73kg between home fighter Butbul Tohar of Israel against current European Junior Champion Hidayet Heydarov of Azerbaijan.