Oberwart kicks-off with lightweights

At the first day of the European Junior Championships 32 medals over 8 categories will be handed out. This year’s strongest in the men’s category U55 was Jorre Verstraeten who won two European Cups of Belgium. With his countryman Vladislav Lim he dominated the European Cups where also Andrea Carlino took five medals in total. Carlino is in one pool with Lim. Furthermore the medals were wide spread so the title challenge is open.

Briton Samuel Hall is the highest seeded player U60kg. He wo four medals in the pre season and he is separated from Shapi Surakatov (RUS) who won two European Cups. His first match is against World Cadet Champion Denislav Ivanov (BUL), something to look out for. The real challengers may be Italians Manuel Lombardo and Angelo Pantano and Whalide Khyar of France.

Alexander Raskopine (ISR) and Pavel Patokov (RUS) won two European Cups U66kg this season, both are in the same side of the sheets, on the other side Dmitry Raskin (ISR) and Dzmitry Minkou (BLR) have the best seeds. Raskin won bronze last year on behalf of the Ukraine. High potential chances for Israel in this category although also Switzerland and Turkey and Austria have double chances with strong teams.

Romanian Elemer Szocs is the highest seed U73kg. The tall man couldn’t really convince yet with his potential but his seed is still good. More successful were Mathias Casse (BEL) and Alexandr Kolesnik who both won two European Cups. They both collected three medals this season and have a protected seed as well. This category is really mature with good judoka who might upset the common order. A small pool with Casse, Jan Kosak and Akil Gjakova is a tough one.