Charline van Snick defeats Ebru Sahin in the final U48kg

The first Baku European Games in judo is for Charline van Snick. In the final for women U48kg she defeated Ebru Sahin of Turkey who was showing such good form despite her arm injury which was still taped well. Van Snick took the 400 points for the World Ranking which will help her to climb the ladder towards a good seeding at the Olympic Games where the best eight will get a protected seed.

It was Russian talent Irina Dolgova who outclassed European Champion Eva Csernovicky in the quarter final of the women’s U48kg category. The talented Dolgova reached the semi by beating Leandra Freitas (POR) as well.

Charline Van Snick was the expected semi finalist, but in a pool with Dilara Lokmanhekim you never know. World and Olympic medallist Van Snick didn’t make a mistake and sent the Turkish to the repechage where she lost against the European Champion from Hungary Csernoviczky. Irina Dolgova lost against Van Snick in the semi final.

Turkish Ebru Sahin though reached the final after she beat Spanish talent Julia Figueroa in the quarter final and destroyed the seeded Romanian Monica Ungureanu by a huge ura-nage. Sahin who suffered a serious elbow injury recently stepped over her injury and was able to keep the Turkish hope alive. In the semi final she defeated Maryna Chernyak of the Ukraine who defeated reka Pupp (HUN) and Valentina Moscatt (ITA) in her pool, but got sent back to the bronze podium if all works out.

Spanish Figueroa defeated Moscatt but lost to Irina Dolgova for bronze. Last year's European Champion Csernoviczky took a bronze medal this time after her victory over Maryna Chernyak.

Van Snick had beaten Sahin twice before in Zagreb and Tashkent in 2014, this one tastes very sweet and makes 3-0 and the third European medal for Charline van Snick.

Charline VAN SNICK (BEL) – gold

On winning a gold in Baku - less than a year after having a two-year doping suspension annulled: 

"I am so happy, I was clearly the best today."

"I’m happy to win in the first European Games – and to win my first European championship. I’ve been through too many bad things and problems, so I am happy with this. I deserve it, I’ve been fighting so hard for this."

On the Azerbaijani fans supporting her Turkish final opponent SAHIN:

"I don’t care, I only focus on my opponent and I want to beat her, that’s all. I don’t care if other people are screaming for the opponent, I want to prove to them that they are wrong."

On going straight from the medal ceremony to show her boyfriend in the audience her gold medal:

"He said 'congratulations'. I want to dedicate this to my parents, family, brothers and my boyfriend of course. But also all my staff, because I’m not working alone. I have a lot of people around me, they are so nice, we are really a big team."

On when she started to think about winning a gold:

"I don’t care about the event. I just focus on my fight and I want to win it step by step. When I won the final I didn’t even realise it, because for me it was just a match like any other. Afterwards, on the podium, I realised that ‘now I am a European champion’, and that was really nice."

On what she was doing in June 2014, before her ban was lifted in July:

"I was just training all the time, to become stronger and better and win stronger. Last year I had trouble with the doping controls and with proving my innocence, so I didn’t think about judo at all. But I knew that of course one day I would be a European champion and I did it."