Georgia remains dominant at European Cup Juniors 6th Iliadis Cup

Last year Georgia was the nation that swept the medals in the European Cup of Thessaloniki, the former Iliadis Cup, whose curtain dropped today in Alexander's Melathron of Thessaloniki. The juniors of Georgia collected 12 medals, namely five gold , two silver and five bronze medals, leaving second place to Germany with two gold, four silver and two bronze medals.

The team of Great Britain was in third place winning 2 gold medals, followed by Azerbaijan (1-2-2), Bulgaria (1-2-1), Italy (1-1-2) and Greece (1-1-1)

Georgia opened the curtain of gold medals in the second day of the tournament as well. Guga Kibordzalidze in the O100kg category beat Benjamin Bouizgarne, German U21 champion in 2013 and 2014 by Ippon. The third place was shared by the bronze medallist in the European U17 championship of 2010, Paul Elm (Germany) and Giga Gelashvili (Georgia).

In the O78kg category, Ivana Sutalo (Croatia) broke the undesired pattern of being second in Iliadis Cup for three consecutive years (2013, 2012, 2011). With an impressive win over European U21 champion, Milica Zabic (Serbia), she celebrated winning the gold medal in a category involving a total of three athletes. This was the first medal in 2014 for Sutalo, who should be noted for boasting a silver medal at the European U20 Championships two years ago in Porec.

In the U78kg category Melora Rosetta (Italy), bronze U17 European medallist in 2010 (in the U70kg category) and third in Iliadis Cup of 2012, beat Paraskevi Edirneli (Greece) by shido and won the gold medal . In third place was the Una Tuba (Serbia), first in Balkan Championships U21 in 2013 and 15-year-old Rozalya Hershko (Israel).

In the U100kg category Philipp Galandi, after being 3rd in the German U21 Championships in 2014, beat Danny Hanke, 2nd of the same tournament and won the gold medal.

Regarding the Georgian “civil war” in the final of repechage between Giorgi Takadze and Karlo Nemsitsveridze, winner was the former and the second bronze medal of the category went to Leon Strueber (Germany). The latter had occupied the third position in September last year at European U21 Championships , as well as in the World U17 Championships in 2011 .

In the U70kg women category came the second gold medal for Great Britain. Jemina Duxberry beat Gabriela Gigova (Bulgaria) by Ippon and gave the “Isle of Albion” an additional medal. However Gigova will not leave Thessaloniki disappointed , because she managed to climb a step above the podium of winners compared to last year's meeting. The bronze medals of the category ended up to Marina Krak (Croatia) and Jovana Pekovic (Montenegro).\u202fThe latter was first in the Balkan U18 Championships in 2013 .

The two bronze medallists of last year's event, Firudin Dadashov (Azerbaijan) and David Tekic (Germany) were found facing each other in the final of the U90kg category. The winner was Dadashov ( 3rd in the European U17 Championships in 2011 ) by Ippon (Ippon Seo-nage), 2 minutes and 28 seconds before the expiration of the five minute period. The bronze medals of this class had a “scent” of Georgia, the third step of the podium being Ilia Malvenishvili and his 19 year old compatriot, Zauri Mamardashvili.

The U63kg category brought about the only gold medal of Greece in the 6th Iliadis Cup. The Greek star was Elizabeth Teltsidou who beat Khatia Janashvili (Georgia) in an exciting final won by Ippon (Koshi guruma) and gave the opportunity to the Greek fans found this afternoon at Alexander's Melathron of Thessaloniki to hear the national anthem. 15-year-old Mirjana Milic (Montenegro) won one of the two bronze medals in this category, while the second one went to Inbal Shemesh (Israel).

Today's event ended just like it had begun; bringing another gold medal to Georgia. This time the big U81kg category winner was Ushangi Margiani defeating Rufat Ismayilov (Azerbaijan) in the final. Stefan Majdov beat his own brother Nemanja Majdov by forfeit in the repechage final and won one of the two bronze medals on behalf of Serbia in this category. The second one was won by Filip Stancel (Slovakia) who defeated Arso Milic (Montenegro) in the dying seconds of their match.

Bear in mind that during the 6th Iliadis Cup two new records were broken, these of participating countries (32), and competing athletes (326) .