Croatia proud of record and gold of Helena Vukovic

The group of cadets from Hungary was the most outstanding team at the European Cup for Cadets in Zagreb. The Croatian capital city hosted the fourth European Cup of the season, during which World Ranking number one Helena Vukovic cherished her third victory. The heavyweight defeated Marit Kamps (NED) in the final and captured her third consecutive gold in this age class. Vukovic was previously victorious in Follonica and Fuengirola.

Filip Miljevic won silver for the Croatian boys team; on the podium he stood below Hungarian heavyweight Richard Sipocz, who was last year’s most successful junior of all athletes. Hungary also claimed the victory U55kg by Andras Vida, U81kg by Benedek Toth, and in the girls U57kg category, by Alexandra Maroti.

Brazil was unlucky with three losses in the finals, but they did capture two gold medals by Willian Lima (U60kg) and Laura Ferreira (U44kg). The French team won six medals in total and Ophelie Vellozzi (U52kg) and Morgane Fereol (U70kg) were the golden girls for France. Two Romanian boys took the gold medal: U66kg by Adrian Sulca and Eduard Serban U90kg.

Israelian lightweight Ido Rabin bested Dutchman Victor van Gerven. The Netherlands lost three finals this tournament. Israel won all three medal colours in Zagreb. Italian cadet champion Mattia Prosdocimo claimed first place U73kg. It is interesting to see some of the younger generation judoka with older brothers and sisters.

Montenegro keeps breeding new talent. For example, super lightweight Ivana Nikolic took the gold U40kg. last year she won two silver medals and has started successfully in 2017. Polish Marta Kuras defeated Dutch girl Naomi van Krevel in the final U48kg. European bronze Junior medallist Anja Obradovic of Serbia is still a cadet and, not surprisingly, she won the gold medal in the cadet class U63kg.

The Zagreb tournament was amazing, boasting 792 participants, which is one more than the previous record of 2014. Zagreb tops the tally of most crowded tournaments for cadets, including large events in Teplice and Berlin.