Beka Gviniasvhvili writes judo history

Beka Gviniashvili showed awesome judo today in Oberwart and wrote Judo history with his fourth junior European medal in a row. The Netherlands have taken the victory in the medal table at the European Junior Championships in Oberwart. The Dutch won four gold medals as today Frank de Wit and Larissa Groenwold added another title. Not just Groenwold and De Wit but also Szabina Gercsak was a great winner when she stunned Sanne Van Dijke in the final, in another exciting day of junior judo. Danilo Pantic wrote history for Montenegro and Tushishvili was in great shape.

Great Britain celebrates another European Junior Champion. The British young women dominated the European Cups and Lucy Renshall defeated Lubjana Piovesana in the semi final. In the final Renshall was able to beat Greek Elisaveta Teltsidou in the golden score.

The bronze medal was Selina Dietzer who gave herself a great birthday present with European bronze. Geke van den Berg of the Netherlands defeated Europe’s strongest girl in the European Cup tour this season Lubjana Piovesana of the Great Britain, she peaked a bit too early where Renshall got in shape later, so did Van den Berg. With bronze on her neck she could watch her friend Sanne van Dijke in the final for women U70kg.

Van Dijke’s opponent was Szabina Gercsak, last year’s U63kg European Champion. Gerczak booked some good results in the senior category with a fifth place at the European Games. Van Dijke is the undisputed number one of Europe in this category and won a European bronze Grand prix medal oin Dusseldorf. In the final she led quickly by yuko. Gerscak looked for the counter and had one small chance but didn’t use it. Van Dijke had won her four fights before this final with ippon while the tall Hungarian needed the full set of minutes in all her fights. Not in the final though where Gercsak threw Van Dijke for waza-ari 55 seconds for the end after a first ippon call. But a tactical minute could prevent Van Dijke to get back. Gercsak won her second European title, but in another category, a late birthday present for her coach. In Hungary they can be proud of her third consecutive European title, in 2013 she took even the double in the cadets (World and Europeans), last in year in Bucharest the Junior title against Do Velema, and now another Dutch Sanne van Dijke. To be complete in 2013 Lisa Mullenberg was her third Dutch who she beat in a row.

The bronze in the category u70kg was for Austria’s Michaela Polleres, she controlled Johanna Blietz of Germany by oseikomi and gave the first medal to the organizing country. Aleksandra Samardzic defeated Alessandra Prosdocimo in the golden score by yuko.

Frank de Wit won his first European title in his young career. The 19-year old Dutchman booked quite a few good results in the senior category, but still has two year to shine in the junior category. This time without Igolnikov, without Majdov and Ushangi, De Wit took what he deserved. In the final De Wit slammed Nicon Zaborosciuc of Moldova after 25 seconds. Watched by both his parents he defeated all his five opponents but the final was by far his shortest match. Another good performance as well for Moldova with a fourth medal in this championship. Dorin Gotonaga had won the third in the same category when he defeated Viktor Makukha (UKR). Joao Martinho of Portugal defeated British Stuart McWatt for bronze.

Number five of the Senior IJF World Ranking Beka Gviniashvili prolonged his title U90kg with a victory over David Tekic of Germany. The Georgian talent is the first one since a long time who won three consecutive European Junior titles . After 25 seconds he converted a sutemi into oseikomi and won his last bout by ippon as well. Gviniashvili was the most outstanding athlete of the day, simply superior over his age peers. He wrote judo history when he took his third European title and fourth medal in a row givinhg him jointly the lead in the all time Junior table together with Ulla Werbrouck. We can say he is the best ever male performer in European Junior history.

Another greatness, won bronze for Russia, Mikhail Igolnikov was again on the podium in his new category. The Olympic Champion and world number two U81kg absolutely vanished Eduard Trippel in his last match for bronze. Polish Piotr Kuczera defeated Rokas Nenartavicius (LTU) on penalties and won bronze. 

Larissa Groenwold is the new European Champion for women U78kg. The Dutch used the Dutch flow to get the maximum out of herself in Oberwart. In the final she strangled Brigitta Matic for ippon and with this gold medal she equaled with the Dutch team the best ever performance achieved in 1996 when among other Edith Bosch won the European Junior title. Just like Gviniashvili she won three European Junior titles. The bronze in this strong category was for Morgane Duchene of France and Sara Rodriguez. Groenwold was the number one seed and she found her way to the gold.

Danilo Pantic of Montenegro led after a minute in the final U100kg when he threw Russian Oleg Abaev on the side of the tatami. No one still couldn’t believe such stunt and with three minutes to go there was still time for Abaev who won the European Cadet title +90kg in 2011. Pantic is a huge talent, national champion and former Balkan champion and he gave Abaev a tough match and the pressure was clearly on the Russian and Pantic benefit with a huge left ippon seoi nage. He stunt and threw Abaev for ippon. For sure the most surprising title of the day. He took the first ever European title for his country Montenegro. Niyaz Ilyasov won the second bronze for Russia in this weight category. Joseph Terhec added some more joy on the stands for the French equipe and the cheers could be heard in France.

The European title in the heavyweight category for women is this year for Vasylyna Kyrychenko of the Ukraine. The heavyweight defeated Polish Anna Zaleczna after two minutes when she had Zaleczna in oseikomi after scoring a yuko and converted to a good ne-waza position. Iuliia Lianichenko of Russia threw Katarina Vukovic (CRO) for a super harai goshi and won the bronze with this impressive ippon for a ‘heavyweight’ although she’s very athletic. Roudely Caroly was the winner in her last battle against Emese Karpati (HUN) and added a sixth medal for France.

The last individual European title of the tournament was for Georgia. Guram Tushishvili scored three times in a minute against Ruslan Shakhbazov of Russia in a lively offensive final. The fourth score was launched 90 seconds for the end and that was the end for Shakhbazov in a superior match for the Georgian. It was the third title and gave Georgia the second place at the medal table behind the Netherlands with four titles, a record for the Dutch. A bronze medal went to Serbia. Culum defeated Messie Katanga for bronze. Another Balkan medal for Bosnia Herzegovina when Harun Sadikovic defeated Romanian Mircea Croitoru.