Super Challenge team event: Brazil vs 7 European top teams

Eight countries will compete in the third edition of the BRA Super Challenge - International Selection Cup at 15 June including 7 teams from Europe. A team of Russia, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Great Britain, Germany and Portugal will participate in the men's team competition on June 15 in Bahia.

The Super Challenge BRA - International Cup of Selections arrives at its third edition with participation of some of the major talented judoka of this moment. At the CBJ Training Center in Lauro de Freitas some of the best young athletes will participate such as Anri Egutidze (POR), Simeon Catharina (NED), Manuel Lombardo (ITA), Angelo Pantano (ITA), Ivan Dolgikh (RUS), Harry Lovell-Hewitt (GBR), Sacha Flament (FRA) and many Brazilian talents.

Just as it was in the last editions, the Brazilian team will be formed by our main judoka U21 and the regulation allows us to also call a U23 and a Senior athlete. This allows for instance a world class athlete such as Sebastian Seidl to compete in the German team as well. Seidl competed at Olympic Games, European- and World Championships.

"We made the first edition of the World Cup in 2016 and the countries that came have already shown interest in returning, given the high technical level of the dispute. I believe it will be a preview of this year's Under-21 World Championship, which will take place in October in Zagreb, "says Marcelo Theotônio, manager of CBJ's Base Categories.

The World Cup is played in the format of Olympic repechage with the preliminaries starting in the quarterfinals. Whoever wins advances to the semifinals and whoever loses in the quarterfinals goes to the recap. It is a team competition in which each duel between countries has seven bouts, one per weight category (60kg, 66kg, 73kg, 81kg, 90kg, 100kg and + 100kg). The duel wins the team that wins the largest number of matches.

The schedule of the event begins with the draw of the keys on Wednesday, 14 at 2:30 p.m., in the CT of CBJ and the first matches will be on Thursday, 15, from 8am. The bronze contest will be held the same day at 3pm and the final at 5pm.

In February of this year, the Brazilian team was crowned champion of the second edition of the Cup when winning the selection of Germany by 4 to 3 in the final. Japan took the title of the first edition in 2016, defeating Russia 4 to 3 in the decision, and Brazil was bronze.

JudoInside estimates that the teams of Brazil, The Netherlands and Italy seemed to have good chances to reach the finals given the names in their team.