Eleven winning nations at Junior European Cup in Prague

At the tenth Junior European Cup of the season 39 nations were present in Prague, more than in any other comparable event. Russia again showed it potential with three gold medals at this tough tournament. Some categories with more than 50 participants.

The Russian athletes won the weight categories U81kg, U100kg and women U52kg and captured 15 medals in total.

Some young winners in Prague with 18 year old Metka Lobnik of Slovenia who was the youngest gold medallist. Also Ukraine Nataliia Chystiakova took gold U78kg and Germany’s Annabelle Winzig who took gold U63kg. Helena Vukovic of Croatia was the winner on Saturday’s heavyweight category.

Rovshan Aliyev of Azerbaijan won his category U60kg against Romanian Mircea Tomescu, but Romania was again successful with Lucian Bors Dumitrescu who also captured the title in Paks one month ago. Joao Fernando was the first Portuguese man to win gold on European ground, he defeated Armen Again (RUS) in the final.

On Sunday Novruz Novruzov won his category U81kg against Finnish Oskari Makinen, the best performance this season for his country. Belgian Karel Foubert came back strong after an early loss against the later winner and took precious bronze.

Belarussian Ivan Dubina won gold U90kg, Valeriy Endovitskiy U100kg for Russia and Russian heavyweight Imran Yusifov was the last winner of the weekend.

Spanish Mireia Lapuerta Comas was again strong and took gold finally after silver in Coimbra. She won the final against Belgian lightweight Lois Petit. Tatiana Tsygankova against Canadian Taeya Koliaska U52kg. Czech Republic is doing well in the juniors and Vera Zemanova was the first woman this season to win gold in her division U57kg. Annabelle Winzig was strong on Saturday U63kg with gold and overcame Anastasiia Antipina (UKR) in the final.

Next week is an important meeting in Berlin where most nations will appear and this will be a good benchmark for the European Championships in September.