Larisa Ceric still hungry with golden performance in Sarajevo

Once she was a super talent, likely Bosnia’s best ever. Former number one of the world and today she was again the number one in her own country Bosnia Herzegovina. Larisa Ceric claimed the gold medal again in Sarajevo. Some things never change.

She is 31 years young and has seen it all in judo. But more is more beautiful than winning gold in Sarajevo at home; Ceric stood on the podium with gold on Sunday. Her hunger isn’t over yeat and it confirmed her hunger to qualify again for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. The national anthem was for her while watching coaches Arijaja Jaha and Brane Crnogorac. It turned out to be a beautiful weekend with two precious gold medals for the organizing country.

Ceric defeated Wiktoria Lis (POL) in the final and saw Farah Sharaf taking another medal for Egypt with bronze as well as Croatia’s Katarina Vukovic.

Croatia did well today in Sarajevo taking the gold U70kg with Lucija Babic against her teammate Andela Violic (CRO). Sudaba Aghayeva (AZE) and Emilie Sook (DEN) took a bronze medal.

Metka Lobnik of Slovenia was the surprise U78kg with a gold medal. She defeated Paulina Dziopa (POL) in the final and was accompanied on the podium by Lea Gobec (CRO) and Dubrovnik winner Julie Hoelterhoff (GER).

Hungary was the most successful nation today thanks to the two gold medals of Benedek Toth (HUN) and Zsombor Veg. Benedek Toth captured the victory after his win against Lorenzo Parodi (ITA) U81kg in today’s first final. Toth saw Nikola Gardasevic (MNE) and Abdelrahman Abdelghany (EGY) on the podium for bronze.

Belgium was happy to see Karel Foubert on the podium with gold. It took a long time but Foubert sems back at a level to make the next step. The trainingpartner of World Champion Matthias Casse was a long time talent fighting U81kg but stepped up U90kg more than a year ago. Always close to the medals, being Belgian champion but finally this valuable gold medal in Sarajevo where he’s been a few times before, but never with gold. In the final Foubert defeated Toni Miletic of host nation Bosnia that added a silver medal. Josip Bulic (CRO) and Tim Schmidt (GER) took bronze medals.

The second gold medal for Hungary was for Zsombor Veg (HUN) fighting U100kg. In the final he bested Oleksiy Lysenko (UKR). Two Polish fighters took bronze Michal Jedrzejewski and Nikodem Kubiak.

French tall heavyweight Hamza Ouchani captured the victory against Wojciech Kordyalik (POL). British judoka Wesley Greenidge and Serbian Igor Vracar took bronze.

In the end it was Hungary that took the medal win with three gold medals. Bosnia. Belgium, Egypt and France all won two gold medals.