Zagreb awarded the European Championships in 2024

The 2024 European Championships were given to the Croatian capital Zagreb. In the Olympic year the Croatian Judo Federation will organize the championships. The country of World Champion Barbara Matic announced the forthcoming event on Wednesday.

The recognition is for the acquired trust of the successful organisation of a number of Grand Prix tournaments, as well as the World Junior Championship and the European Championship in various age categories U23, U21 and U18 years. The Croatian Judo federation grew to a certain level of organizing as well as having and supporting a great generation of talent with its biggest frontrunner Barbara Matic who defended her title successfully this year in Tashkent in an all Croatian final against Lara Cvjetko.

Double World Champion Matić said: “There is no better feeling than fighting in front of the home crowd. I am indescribably happy that the last European Championship before the Olympic Games in Paris will be held in Croatia. It would be nice to win as great a medal as possible in front of our audience, so there will be no shortage of motivation, both for me and for the rest of our national team members.“

European Union Vice President Hrvoje Lindi is proud: “We have been working on this project for a long time, and now it will finally come true. The best judoka players of Europe will come to Zagreb before the Olympic Games. The current Olympic and world champions will come to us, as well as those who will become champions in Paris, so we are looking forward to the spectacle in the Zagreb Arena.”

The president of the Croatian Judo Federation, Sanda Čorak is convinced of another organisational success of an experienced organizational team. “We have an extremely experienced team that is ready for another in a series of major sports events that promote Croatia as a sporting nation.”

Current Prime Minister Andrej Plenković is the most sports-oriented of all the previous Prime Ministers of the Republic of Croatia. And that was the signal that was decisive in making the decision for the president of the European Judo Union Laszlo Toth who said:  “It was not easy for us to make that decision because several countries applied to host the European Championships, but Croatia at the time of the corona virus pandemic was the only country that started organising competitions and we were very grateful for that. We are happy that, after the 2023 European Championship in Montpellier, in the 2024 Olympic Games, we will have the strongest continental competition in Central Europe, in Zagreb.”