Dutch Jur Spijkers dominates the European heavyweights

At the European Cadet Championships in Athens the heavyweight came from The netherlands. Jur Spijkers (NED) had to go deep to take the only gold medal for the Netherlands at these European Championships over top seed Vakhid Daurbekov (RUS).

Daurbekov was in the lead with a waza-ari, but he also had three shidos. With just 27 seconds remaining, Spijkers threw the Russian for waza-ari and then followed up with a second waza-ari to win the title.                            

“He had a waza-ari, but I came back and got two waza-ari”, the Dutchman summed up. “I had two bad tournaments before coming here, so my ranking was low, but I knew that I can be European Champion. The first match today was very difficult for me, because I had lost to him (Bartlomiej Zawadzki, POL) in Poland, but I was very motivated to beat him this time. The final was hard, too.” Another motivation for Spijkers came from the Dutch football team that qualified for the semifinal at the World Cup, although he couldn’st watch the match as it was too late in the evening on Saturday. “I am European Champion and they will become World Champions”, Spijkers said, laughing.                             

Daurbekov was visibly distraught after his loss.                  

Second seeded Alessandro Graziano (ITA) came back from his loss to Spijkers in the quarterfinal and                             

earned the bronze over Ahmet Yildirim (TUR). Stephan Heygi (AUT), who had lost to Spijkers in the semifinal, took home the other bronze medal. He defeated Romas Petkus (LTU).                

Another contender, Kemal Kaitov (RUS), ranked fourth in the world in this category, was out after losing his first contest.                 

20 competitors entered the heavyweight.