Belarus secures the future U66kg at European Open in Sofia

Belarus was happy to see Dzmitry Shershan winning the European Cup in Sofia. Not just that but also a bronze medal for Dzmitrij Minkou was a reason to cheer today in Bulgaria.

Belarus did win gold after all as Dzmitry Shershan was expected among the medallists. Shershan hold of Abdula Abdulzhalilov from snatching gold U66kg. Ilkin Babazada (AZE) and Dzmitry Minkou, another good fighter from Belarus took bronze. Minkou and Shershan didn’t fight eachother today. Minkou (19) was today's youngest medallist, Shershan the oldest winner of today, so future continuation is prepared in Belarus. The winner said to the EJU reporter: “This is my first event of this year. I have had some hard fights today and I think I would consider the first one as the most challenging one. All in all, of course I am happy to win the gold medal.”

In the men’s division Elbrus Zamanov of Azerbaijan won gold against Elios Manzi, the Italian talent who is back in the scene after an absence of 15 months in international judo. Zamanov, a former European Cadet bronze medallist surprised all five opponents and scored wazari and ippon against Manzi. Arif Bagirov (BLR) and Sakhavat Gadhiev of Russia won bronze medals.

Zamanov reacted: “I know if I am relaxed than I can fight my own style and I can do my own judo and bring the result I want to and I am capable of achieving. This relaxation gives me freedom in my head to be able to win.”

Another surprise was the Russian gold for Saian Ondar in the final U73kg. Ondar, a former Russian U21 champion and winner in Malaga’s European Cup last year, defeated Giorgi Katsiashvili of Georgia in the final and won all his six fights. Although the field wasn’t the strongest, it was at least highly competitive with 48 athletes.

Ondar had a tough final where he came back during the match: “Last year, I won a medal at the European Cup so I am happy that now I managed to win a European Open. The most difficult fight was definitely the final as I was down by a waza-ari and it is always hard to overcome such a high score so I am really happy.”

Ondar also defeated Slovenian talent Martin Hojak who won the African Open in Tunis two weeks ago. Tohar Butbul of Israel surprised Sam van ‘t Westende (NED) for bronze and Dmitrijs Fedosejenkovs gave Latvia a flying start of  2016 due to his bronze medal. He won his first ever World Cup medal. Vsevolods Zelnonijs won 18 (of all 62) medals for his country U73kg, Mihals Steinbuks won silver in 2014, now Fedosejenkovs captured his first big fish.