Russian men and French women capture European team title

The Russian junior men captured the European Team title in Oberwart. The Russian team defeated Germany by 5-0 in the final. The French young women claimed the title after a victory against the Slovenian women.

In the men’s division Russia was in a pool with their strong peers of Georgia. After Finland was defeated Georgia was the second victim of the ambitious team of Vladimir Drachko. The Russian also defeated last year’s winner Georgia and qualified for the semi final by a 3-2 win. Essential was the stunt of Mikhail Igolnikov who defeated Beka Gviniashvili. The Georgians came back in the repechage via a victory against Serbia and successfully fought for the bronze medal against the Ukraine, so the bronze was secured.

Poland won the battle with France and Serbia defeated the successful Dutch team, Poland defeated Serbia, but lost to Russia in the semi final. The second semi final was between Ukraine and Germany. Germany had survived the home team of Austria and defeated the Ukraine in the semi final. Poland lost the bronze bout against Belarus, another great performance and motivation for Belarus.

In the final Russia defeated the Germans by 5-0. In the last bout Bashaev won his battle against Dominik Schoenefeldt as the German got injured to his knee. The sportsmen Bashaev wanted to apologise or at least inform about his colleague and didn’t celebrated the European title due to the sad loss of the German. A respectful action by Bashaev.

The French women defeated Slovenia in the final, a reason for a big celebration, as always by the French. Les blues won by 3-2 and also overcame Italy with a clear result of 5-0. The German women were defeated by 3-2, but they came back in the repechage, just like their senior examples and took the bronze medal. Germany defeated last year’s European champions Croatia by 5-0. The Russian women beat Italy  by 4-1. France improved last year’s silver performance to gold.