2008 Olympic champion Alina Dumitru understands pressure on athletes

This weekend the European Open in Bucharest will be held. The Polivalent Hall will be filled with over 400 judoka from more than 30 countries. Among the athletes some top names. Not the least from Romania itself.

It’s the tenth edition of the World Cup held since 2005 with this status. The last edition was in 2013. In 2014 the European Junior Championships were held in Bucharest.

It’s also a pleasure to see for 2008 Olympic champion and London finallist Alina Dumitru. She is surprised by the high level of the competition.

"It is very good to say that there are so many very good athletes who fight for the points in Bucharest. This increases the value of the tournament and in the future we will be able to turn the Open into a Grand Prix. " - Dumitru said, who knows well how to fight for a home crowd.

She won the European title 8 times and in 2004 for the first time in her own Bucharest. She kept the title U48kg until 2012.

Dumitru: "We are always looking forward to our own tournament in Romania. I am glad that all Romanians can see me, but at the same time was the pressure of the result. Dumitru won this World Cup twice in 2006 and 2010.

So far in the history Romania counted 8 victories of which Dumitru is topscorer. Of the 8 victories, just one man, Dan Fasie, so a good motivation, but also pressure, for number one seed Daniel Natea to take the victory. With Larisa Florian (6^th U52kg) Natea is the highest seeded Romanian in the World Ranking at 7 +100kg. Ungureanu is 18, Chitu 22. Corina Caprioriu (37), Chitu and Dumitru were previously number one of the World.

Florin Bercean , coordinating coach of the Olympic teams and vice president of the Romanian Judo Federation, enjoys the value of the participants, but also regrets that many of the women's Olympic women's Olympic athletes who could have won medals at this competition are injured or in recovery.

"Andreea Chiţu will be in operation in June, Loredana Ohai is recovering and we are happy that this is very good, and Stefania Dobre was very close to the surgery and she is also recovering. Hope for good results we have from Monica Ungureanu at 48 kg. But also from the girls in the Olympic youth team. " Bercean comments.

The European Seniors Open in Bucharest starts on Saturday, June 3rd at 10:00h  and final block matches from 17:00h on Saturday, on Sunday from 16:00h.