Andreea Chitu wins European Games gold against Annabelle Euranie

Romanian Andreea Chitu won the European Games Judo Tournament for women U52kg. Chitu was among the favourites and in good shape this season. Chitu won gold in 2012, silver in 2013 and bronze in 2014, but this year she is top again with victories in Zagreb (CRO) and Cluj Napoca (ROU). Today in Baku no one could stop the aggresive Chitu from winning the gold, not even the tall 32-year old surprise Annabelle Euranie.

The final between Chitu and Euranie was an agressive start from Chitu but Euranie has a lot of experienced and tried to take over the attacks of the Romanian. Chitu defeated the French twice recently, in Rabat at the Masters and in 2014 in Samsun. Chitu led the match but not by a score which is hard against Euranie. But two penalties gave Chitu the pace to control the match. With 30 seconds a third penalty followed and Chitu knew she could take it once she controlled the French ideally on the ground. Even two penalties in the last 15 seconds didn't harm her anymore and she took the title. Despite the spoiled history in women's judo with many titles, it was in 2012 Chitu (and Dumitru) who won the last European title. Since 2004 one of the women had won a title and this may be a new start of such streak with new talents booming such as Florian who finished fifth.

In fact no surprises in the preliminaries in Baku in the women U52kg weight class. All four highest seeded players have reached the semi final. In this strong tournament a few surprises had to appear and the older judoka such as Ilse Heylen (BEL) and Jaana Sundberg (FIN) suffered from the youngsters. 

Heylen was defeated by Giuffrida who lost against Andrea Chitu of Romania who reached the semi final. Sundberg lost to Larissa Florian (ROU) who couldn’t beat the powerful Natalia Kuziutina who was the highest favourite for her fourth European title. However in the semi final between Kuziutina and French Annabelle Euranie, the tall 32-year old French athlete survived the Russian ambitions and defeated Kuziutina. Euranie won her pool with Dutch Birgit Ente who couldn’t stop Euranie in the quarter final. 

Her opponent in the final Andreea Chitu is in shape as well on the other side of the table where German Mareen Kraeh was her opponent. Kraeh who got back from an injury is just in shape in time since a week or two. She defeated strong Spanish Laura Gomez in her first bout and Tetiana Levytska (UKR) in the quarter final. Chitu defeated Kraeh for the sixth time in head2heads confrontations.

Larissa Florian overcame Birgit Ente in the repechage and will face Mareen Kraeh. Giuffrida defeated Levytska and the young Italian will faced Kuziutina for bronze later on. Last year Kuziutina lost the final of Majlinda Kelmendi who is injured. Chitu won bronze in 2014 and has improved her position tremendously with the crown. She won the European title in 2012 in Chelyabinsk, nine years later than Annabelle Euranie who won the European title in 2003 when she was 20, she got a child and can made a glorious comeback. In between Audrey La Rizza, Penelope Bonna and Priscilla Gneto filled in that gap U52kg.

Natalia Kuziutina will be ready at the World Championships, this was milestone and she took the bronze medal against Odette Giuffrida, although the bronze match was not a walkover. Two years ago at the Europeans in Budapest Kuziutina won in the semi final against the Italian.

Mareen Kraeh defeated Larisa Florian and dominated the match, she winded the Romanian to the ground and scored the ippon not much later in the final. She won bronze before in 2006, 2012 and this European Games bronze.

Quotes Andreea CHITU - gold

On her tactics in the gold medal match which she won with two penalties versus three penalties for her opponent and no scores on both sides:

"It was very difficult, because my because my opponent (EURANIE) was so tall. I could not use my favourite throw (O-uchi-gari) as this does not work against such a tall opponent. I had to fight a tactical match."

On her expectations:

"Of course I wished to win gold, but my goal was to finish on the podium and win a medal, not necessarily the gold medal."

On when she started to believe that she could win the gold medal:

"After the first match I felt I could win. It gave me a boost of trust in myself. And here I am."