Strong Belgian team at last European Cup in Berlin

On the first day of the European Cup for Juniors in Berlin, the Belgian team claimed three gold medals. In the past the women performed better, but now the men have the future. Today it was a mix of the three biggest talents: Casse, Verstraeten, and Myriam Blavier who won the women’s category U52kg. The Belgians lead the medal table with five medals, France and the Netherlands followed with two titles apiece.

Jorre Verstraeten and Vladislav Lim know each other to the bone. Two weeks ago in Wroclaw, Lim and Verstraeten reached the final and it was Verstraeten to snatch the gold. Lim performed well and won this year the European Cup in La Coruna, but just like in Wroclaw and the Belgian Championships, Verstraeten defeated Lim to take the U55kg gold.

Italian champion Andrea Carlino took bronze. Korean Lee Ha-Rim who lost to Lim, won bronze. Last year, Verstraeten took bronze as well, so that leaves potential for next year.

His colleague Matthias Casse took gold again, just like in Wroclaw’s scenario. The silver was for Tamazi Kirakozashvili, the silver medallist of the Youth Olympic Games in 2014. His compatriot Giorgi Katsiashvili was defeated in his first match by Casse, but came back strongly in the repechage and took bronze, so did Alexander Kolesnik, the winner of the European Cup in Leibnitz.

Myriam Blavier won gold U52kg against Astride Gneto, from France. The Belgian champion started her engines right in time and left Gneto again with silver, the same position as the European Championships last year and many European Cups. Last year, Gneto won the title in Berlin.

Turkey took two bronze medals in this category. They finished 1-3 of the Turkish championships and 1-2 of the Balkan Championships, women with talent.

Turkey lost the U48kg final against Frenchwoman Sephora Corcher. Marine Baumans, another Belgian, finished with bronze. Khalid Whyar was the second winner of French gold. He was expected to win in the men U60kg and defeated Kim Chann-Yeong of Korea in the final. Pavel Patokov was good for the gold for men U66kg against Swiss Nils Stump. Two bronze medals again for Georgia in this weight class.

The Netherlands claimed the first gold medal of the day. Amber Gersjes, who took her fourth victory this season. Previously she took gold in Coimbra, St Petersburg and Kaunas , so the 18-year old youngster can be seen as one of the candidates for the European title. The same counts for Dewy Karthaus who won the women’s division, U57kg against Theresa Stoll of Germany. The winner of last year lost to the European bronze medalist of last year. Karthaus won in St. Petersburg and Kaunas and seems to be one of the strongest this season.