France winning nation at European Cup in Sarajevo

France was the best nation at the European Cup in Sarajevo. The French captured three gold medals and nine medals in total. On Saturday the heavier categories were fighting, normally the lightweights start at most events. Aurelien Diesse was a strong winner in the category U90kg witnessed by Serbian World Champion Nemanja Majdov who lives in (East) Sarajevo.

The Bosnian Herzegovina Federation is working hard to get more international grip and with some athletes they are successful, but they didn’t fight here, so it was expected that the host nation didn’t play a sportive role in Sarajevo.

France was strong in both men and women’s division. In the female category lightweight Cheyenne Mounier took gold U48kg and on Saturday Margaux Pinot gave France the lead in the medal table winning her category U70kg. Sweden had a good surprise win by Victor Busch U81kg and even Olle Mattsson finished with bronze. The Swedes got some good public relations last week in the documentary of CNN.

Dutchman Sjors Riddersma gave a good example for his country when he won gold U100kg. On Sunday Roy Koffijberg (U60kg) captured the second Dutch victory and the Netherlands ended as second in the medal table due to a silver and three bronze medals. The Dutch were followed by Belgium that sent a promising team and grabbed gold on Sunday by Gourgen ALeksanyan U66kg and Mimi Blavier U57kg. Belgium won medals in each male division on Sunday and the team won five medals. In the category U52kg it was Fabienne Kocher who was the only athlete to prolong last year’s title. Kocher seems back after a long injury and she filled her time being a coach for youngsters meanwhile but now she can showcase her gold medal to those kids. In the men’s U73kg it was Timo ALlemann who is in a good shape and won gold against Martin Vegvari (HUN). This category hosted 34 participants and had a good podium with Denis Caro (BEL) and Pierre Duprat (FRA).

Anton Brachev became the winner of the men’s +100kg category on Saturday with strong Balkan opposition.

Lia Ludvik won gold for Slovenia U63kg. Italy’s Alessandtra Prosdocimo showed she can still win titles. In Sarajevo she won a competitive category U70kg against Giorgia Stangherlin also from Italy. Hungary won gold +78kg by Mercedesz Szigetvari against her well-known compatriot Kitty Nagy. Hungary was a bit unlucky with four silver medals although +78kg was a luxury situation. Croatia won eight medals, but none of them gold, Tena Sikic was the only silver medal after she lost to Mimi Blavier.