Wiktor Mrowczynski takes gold for Poland

The category U73kg at the European Open in Warsaw was for Poland. With three men on the podium they really owned the podium. Wiktor Mrowczynski captured the gold medal today in Warsaw. Mateusz Garbacz and Damian Szwarnowiecki took the bronze medal. Paulina Szlachta took the only medal in the women’s division, she claimed a bronze medal U48kg.

For the first time Mrowczynski captured a gold medal at this level, previously he took silver medals in Madrid and Warsaw. This time he won his final against Georgian Giorgi Terashvili.

Azerbaijan again took two gold medal in the lightweights. 2019 World Junior Championships silver medallist Ahmad Yusifov won his category U60kg for the first time at senior World Cup level and Ibrahim Aliyev U66kg. Yusifov defeated Australian Joshua Katz in his first European final, while Ailyev overcame his compatriot Ismayil Ibrahimov in the final. Mrowczynski was the 51^st Polish winner of the Polish Open, the 29^th male winner and 20st man. At the previous edition in 2020 Poland had two winners on the first day and five after two days of competition. Mrowczynski is a former winner of Polish Junior, U23 and senior Championships and this is his biggest victory.

Japanese Hikari Yoshioka captured the gold medal U48kg, by defeating Turkish Sila Ersin. Leonie Gonzalez won the gold for France after she caught Hibiki Shiraishi in the final U52kg. Gonzalez previously won the European Open in Sarajevo in September 2021.

Germany’s Pauline Starke claimed the gold medals U57kg. She was the winner in the final against Carla Ubasart of Spain. It was the first World Cup victory for Starke who won bronze at the European Games in 2019 and Grand Slam bronze in Baku last year. The second gold medal for Japan was for Kirari Yamaguchi who defeated Saray Padilla of Spain.