Italian team superior at European Cup in Uster-Zurich

The Italian team dominated the European Cup for Seniors in Uster. With five titles in the women’s division and eight total gold medals the Italians topped the medal tally in Switzerland. Unfortunately, the field was extremely weak and this edition had record low participation numbers. The Italians had by far the biggest team in Switzerland (51 judoka), a stake of 22% of all participants, and 27% of the medals, and 50% of all gold medals.

Alessia Ritieni won the lightweight category U48kg against Belgian Salens. Giulia Pierucci was the next Italian to celebrate gold U52kg against Swiss favourite Tamara Silva. Also, in the U57kg division, Italy’s Anna Righetti bested Evelyne Tschopp, another strong Swiss woman, but the Italians were on fire. However, there was no mercy from the Swiss: U63kg Swiss Gioia Vetterli defeated Cristina Piccin (ITA). Melora Rosetta defeated Smouaya Derrouazi (FRA) in the final U78kg in a field of three and Elisa Marchio was the winner against lea Folkerts (GER) +78kg, not surprisingly. Interesting was the victory for Katarzyna Klys, the Polish world number three in 2014 was warming up in Zurich for the European Championships in April in Warsaw. Also Szabina Gercsak of Hungary was present and took bronze but lost to Alina Lengweiler of Switzerland. It was perhaps one of the best Swiss performances of the day.

In the men’s division there was an all Swiss final between Ciril Grossklaus and Tobias Meier, which was won by Grossklaus. The Swiss judoka is in good shape and took bronze last week in Katowice in a field of 39 internationals. In Uster, it took five victories in a 27-judoka bracket for Grossklaus.

Still the Italians ruled, also in the men, with gold for Andrea Carlino U60kg against Kamal Fikri (FRA). On Sunday Andrea Regis took a great gold medal U81kg; his last international victory was three years ago. Italian heavyweight Andres Felipe Moreno bested his compatriot Claudio Pepoli in the final and secured the gold medal. Exceptions were Roy Schipper of the Netherlands who won the title U66kg and Ramadan Darwish of Egypt taking the title U100kg. 29-Year old Darwish, who was training in the new training centre in The Netherlands, recently was bronze medallist at the World Championships in 2009 and was the African Champion in 2016. He defeated Tentore Masmanidis in Greece in the final and Swiss Patrik Moser in the semi final.

Italy won 14 medals followed by Switzerland and the Netherlands both with 9.