Young German team takes the medals in Dubrovnik

The teams of Germany and Azerbaijan were strong at the second and last day of the European Cup in Dubrovnik in Croatia. Germany even captured three gold medals on Sunday with relatively young players. 18-Year old German Kilian Kappelmeier was the youngest winner of this weekend when he defeated Matej Silvestr (CZE) for gold and was joined by Kylian Bulthuis (NED) and George Udsilauri (GER) on the podium U100kg.

In the women’s division Germany is always strong especially U70kg and U78kg and today was no exception with gold medals for Sarah Maekelburg and Lea Schmidt. Maekelburg claimed the victory in an all German final against Samira Bock (GER). Two Dutch girls who know each-other so well at this level secured the bronze medals: Silja Kok and Margit De Voogd.

U78kg it was Lea Schmid who countered to a gold medal after she successfully overcame Metka Lobnik of Slovenia in the final. Lea Gobec took a bronze medal for the Croatian host and Julie Hoelterhoff (GER) added another German medal.

There was gold for Croatia though in the women’s +78kg weight category where almost the whole podium was Croatian. Helena Vukovic defeated Ivana Šutalo and even Katarina Vukovic was good for bronze. Good old Sarah Adlington (35) took another international medal and was the oldest of this weekend on a podium. The four youngest medallists of this weekend all came from Germany where Kappelmaier top this list.

Also Azerbaijan had a good weekend, in fact at all European Cups in all age groups they picked up a lot of medals, also in Dubrovnik. Zelim Tskaev was an expected winner U81kg in a field of 31 men. The former Russian was fifth at the European U23 Championships last year and now came for gold. In the final he bested Tiziano Falcone (ITA) who saw Lorenzo Parodi (ITA) coming bronze together with Frenchman Hugo Metifiot.

In the men’s U90kg division it was Ukraine who claimed the gold as Zaur Dunyamaliyev came first after his victory against Narsej Lackovic (SLO). Josip Bulic (CRO) and Mihajlo Ciric (SRB) were awarded with bronze in a field of 20 men.

Heavyweight Imran Yusifov of Azerbaijan came first after he defeated Croatia’s Marcel Skalec in the final. Daniel Udsilauri was the second in the German family to win a bronze medal, Luka Violic took the eight medal for Croatia this weekend in Dubrovnik.