Georgia and Italy cherish young judo heroes

Italy has broken the record of 1991. The Italian team celebrated the sixth medal at the second day of the EYOF in Tbilisi. At the EYOF (in that time European Youth Olympic Days) in 1991 in Brussels Italy won five medals and two titles. The later World level athlete Ylenia Scapin took one of the two titles.

In Tbilisi it was Giovanni Esposito who claimed the title in the men’s category U66kg. It was the third gold medal for Italy this edition. In the final U66kg Esposito defeated Gievorg Manukian of the Ukraine. In Sofia at the European Championships Esposito won bronze. The bronze in Tbilisi was for Joris Boes (NED)and Bagrati Niniashvili for Georgia.

The home country did win the first title though. In the men’s U60kg category Robinzon Beglarashvili won the gold medal. This time it was Italy taking a second place. Beglarashvili defeated European Cadet champion Manuel Lombardo. In Sofia Beglarashvili won bronze but at home he took revenge.

Ismayil Ibrahimov of Azerbaijan won the bronze medal  as well as Lars Kamphuis of the Netherlands. Beglarashvili was the best of 23 judoka in his weight class.

The winner said: "Today my performance was pretty good, especially that I faced the Cadet European Champion of Sofia [2015] in the final and for me it was very special to defeat him. I was very happy. Finishing third place in Sofia boosted me to wanting to win here... I was really happy to have my family and friends here today and their support was an additional inspired me and it was a real pleasure to be able to win front of them."

Eighteen young women started U48kg, more than the talents U40 and U44 together yesterday. Today’s winner of the EYOF was French judoka Coraline Marcus Tabellion. Coached by 2012 Olympic champion Lucie Decosse the French defeated Sarah Herrmann, coached by Lena Goeldi who won the Grand Slam of Paris in 2007. In Sofia’s European Cadet Championships Anais Modier won bronze for France, now the title. Marcus Tabellion is the tenth French EYOF winner ever. Among the winners (2003) is Cyrille Maret.

The bronze U48kg was for Natalia Kipshidze who added the fifth medal for Georgia so far. Nadezda Petrovic won bronze for Serbia. Marcus Tabellion is the successor of Hungarian Reka Pupp who won in 2013 in Utrecht. Hungary won three gold EYOF medals ever U48kg.

Organiser Georgia was celebrated it’s 14^th EYOF title since 1995. In 2001 it was Ilias Iliadis who won the title in Murcia, then fighting for Georgia, also Beka Gviniashvili is one of those Georgian stars who won the EYOF. Sounds like a good future for today’s winners.