Gold for Lukas Krpalek icing on the cake in Prague

Czech Republic can be proud of its performance at the European Open in Prague. The Czech athletes claimed two gold medals, silver and bronze, good enough for the victory in the medal table. Sunday’s gold medal for Lukas Krpalek was expected, the 2014 World Champion was the highest seeded athlete of all 270. Krpalek won his category among 28 men. In the final he defeated Niiaz Bilalov from Russia.

Bilalov won bronze at the European U23 Championships last year, but the number 45 of the World Ranking couldn’t prevent Krpalek to finish the job after three minutes in the match. The Czech had also defeated the later two bronze medallists Giuliano Loporchio (ITA) and Tsogtgerel Khutag (MGL). "The final was the hardest match for me no doubt. Bilalov is a young and very talented judoka and I practiced with him in the Mittersill OTC this year. I felt good and I am happy to win”, Krpalek expressed his thoughts after the final to the EJU reporter. “It was very important for me to win here today because my last two tournaments did not go well. I lost in Tokyo as well as in Paris. It was not good because I was tired all the time. Now I am doing a hard preparation for the Olympic Games. This tournament was great because it was at home and I like to fight here. Today was just perfect.”

Czech Republic was close to a third gold medal after Pavel Petrikov had won the first gold on Saturday. In the category U81kg Italian judoka Matteo Marconcini defeated multiple Czech champion Jaromir Musil in the final. The double Italian champion (2010 and 2012) Marconcini booked an important victory in his career, in fact his first World Cup win ever coming back from a long shoulder injury. In a field of 47 athletes Marconcini had to win six battles.

Azerbaijan won gold as Mammadali Mehdiyev claimed the title U90kg. Mehdiyev won his 5th World Cup medal since 2012. In 2013 he won bronze at the European U21 Championships in Sarajevo. In Ljubljana he won World bronze U81 in 2013. Now the Azeri talent is ready for senior level. Two weeks ago in Oberwart he came short in his last bronze match, now he defeated David Ruiz of Spain in the final. He had beaten Ruiz before in Jeju in 2014 and this time two penalties for the Spaniard were decisive in the match. Patryk Ciechomski took bronze and this successful Polish weekend, Karolis Bauza also won bronze, both were defeated by Mehdiyev in his golden campaign.

Romanian heavyweight Daniel Natea took the gold in the final against Russian Soslan Bostanov. In a strong field Natea was the highest seed and he won his second ever Olympic Qualification event in his career. In 2014 Natea won the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi and last year in Cluj (ROU) he won silver at the Euro Open. The bronze for Kokauri, who won gold in Oberwart, gave Azerbaijan the second place in the medal table behind Czech Republic.