European Judo Championships Preview U81kg: New champion in the make

The European Championships in Warsaw will have a new European Champion U81kg. Reigning champion and Olympic champion Khasan Khalmurzaev skips the European Championships in Warsaw and last year’s runner-up Avtandili Tchrikishvili didn’t even get the chance to participate in his new category U90kg.

Some tough guys stepped up to U90 and some men also stepped up from U73 to U81kg and might suddenly interfere in the common rankings. With the new points system lots of points could be gained in the road to Warsaw.

Bulgarian Ivaylo Ivanov is the first seeded player on the list U81kg. He took silver at the Grand Slam in Paris and Grand Prix bronze in Düsseldorf in 2016 and 2017. He won the Grand Slam on Abu Dhabi in 2015 and took bronze at the Grand Slam in Tokyo in 2016. In 2013 Ivanov became European U23 Champion in Samokov and silver in 2015. He took European Junior bronze in 2013. He won the Grand Prix in Samsun. He finished seventh at the 2016 Olympic Games.

Frank de Wit surprised everyone with gold at the Grand Slam in Paris. The Olympian lost in Rio in the first round, but it was a welcome experience to move on in his young career.

De Wit is 2015 World and European Junior champion. He won Junior world silver in 2014. Also European Cadet silver in 2013. In the Seniors he won his first Grand Prix medal in 2015 in Zagreb and added bronze in Cluj. In 2015 De Wit won bronze at the Grand Slam in Paris and bronze at the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi in 2016. In 2017 he continued to be a dangerous contender for the European title in Warsaw.

Alan Khubetsov of Russia is the pick of the Russian staff for U81kg. He won silver in Tbilisi this year. Alan Khubetsov won gold at the Grand Prix in Zagreb in 2016. Khubetsov won the European Championships U23 in Prague in 2012. He won the Grand Slam in Baku in 2014 as first senior success and followed up with victories at the Grand Prix Astana (2014) and Tbilisi in 2015. European Games bronze with the Russian team. He won gold at the Grand Prix in Tbilisi in 2016.

Perhaps his Russian rival Aslan Lappinagov is super talented and he won the Grand Prix in Dusseldorf this year. Lappinagov won the European U23 title in 2015 in Bratislava. He became European Junior Champion Judo in 2013 in Sarajevo. He won a silver medal at the 2015 World Military Games in Mungyeong. He won silver at the African Open Casablanca in 2016. He won the Grand Slam in Tyumen in 2016 and took bronze in Zagreb. He took bronze at the Grand Slam in Tokyo in 2016.

IVANOV Ivaylo (BUL) 1. seed (2. place WRL)

DE WIT Frank (NED) 2. seed (5. place WRL)

KHUBETSOV Alan (RUS) 3. seed (8. place WRL)

LAPPINAGOV Aslan (RUS) 4. seed (9. place WRL)

UNGVARI Attila (HUN) 5. seed (11. place WRL)

ISMAYILOV Rufat (AZE) 6. seed (15. place WRL)

CSOKNYAI Laszlo (HUN) 7. seed (18. place WRL)

RESSEL Dominic (GER) 8. seed (23. place WRL)