Richard Vergnes shows France in the right direction in Malaga

At the first day of the European Cup in Malaga, the French team won four gold medals. Russia, Germany and host country Spain all won one of the seven titles. In total 306 athletes are present from 30 nations in the south Spanish harbour city.

In the women’s division U63kg Spain had three athletes on the podium. Patricia Robles captured the gold in an all Spanish final against Sarai Padilla. Isabel Puche captured the bronze  and Inbal Shemesh (ISR) prevented a clean sweep for Spain.

France though opened the Saturday medal haul for France. U48kg three medals were achieved by the French lightweights. Mallaurie Mercadier won the gold medal against Cinta Garcia Mesa of Spain. Helena Beyssac-Poulin and Melanie Vieu won bronze. Mercadier also won the European Cup in Uster.

U52kg German Verena Thumm (27) showed she can still win these kind of events. She won her third European Cup and her eleventh medal. The German defeated Martina Castagnola of Italy in the final, and again two French on the podium; Noemie Brochot and Cecile Herat. Gaetane Deberdt won the category U57kg against Malin Wilson (GBR). Spanish Jaione Equisoain was the favourite to win gold but at least she won bronze. Federica Luciano of Italy won bronze as well.

The French men also started with gold U60kg. Richard Vergnes defeated French teammate Romaric Bouda in the final and prolonged his title of last year. Aussie Joshua Katz came from far and took bronze, Bakhriddin Mumimov (RUS) won bronze as well. But U66kg it was Russia that won the gold as 18-year old Makhmadbek Makhmadbekov signed for the best performance today and bested Spanish David Garcia Torne in the final. Jose Antonio Aranda won bronze as well as French-Canadian Alister Ward.

Samuel N Zingo took bronze U73kg against Spanish Alberto Varela Ferrer. N Zingo won silver in 2016 but now won his first European Cup. Armen Agaian (RUS) and Hamsat Isaev of Germany won bronze. Last year a strong Korean team participated in Malaga including An Baul, Seung-Su Lee and Dong-Han Gwak who all won gold. Amandine Buchard won U52kg last year. Compared to last year about the same number of participants, but last year the field was stronger.