On the first day of the European Judo Championship in Prague, seven of the fourteen Belgians took action on Thursday. Just like last year, the barely 22-year-old Jorre Verstraeten won a bronze medal in the category up to 60 kilograms and Charline Van Snick also took a bronze medal in the -52 kilograms.
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Last update: 16:58
The men had to Jorre Verstraeten (IJF 18) in the category up to 60 kilograms only come into action in the second round. The barely 22-year-old Verstraeten – good for a bronze medal at the European Championship last year – knew a difficult camp against the Turk Salih Yildiz, but won thanks to an ippon in the absolute end. In the quarterfinals he fought a very exciting match against the Russian number eight in the world ranking Yago Abuladze. He eventually made it with a gold score (waza-ari) and so Verstraeten had to go to the resits. In it he took the beat of the Italian Angelo Pantano with a waza-ari.
In the battle for the bronze medal, the Bulgarian Yanislav Gerchev, the number 31 in the world ranking, was clearly a size too small for our fellow countryman. Verstraeten dominated the entire camp, took waza-ari about forty seconds before the end, after which he was able to put his opponent in a hold to close the camp with ippon.
Kenneth Van Gansbeke did not survive his first round at -66kg. The 30-year-old soldier lost to the Russian Abdula Abdulzhalilov.
The women had to Charline Van Snick (IJF 11) to the -52 kilograms rematches after losing in the quarterfinals to a gold score (waza-ari) against the much lower-ranked Spanish Sheriff Estrella Lopez. In that first match of the rematches, the bronze Olympic medal of London 2012 beat Swiss Fabienne Kocher with a waza-ari. The camp for bronze against the Spanish Ana Perez Box, the number seven in the world rankings, was a real nail biter. More than four minutes extra time was needed before Van Snick could make a difference with an ippon.
For the two-time European champion -48 kg (2015 and 2016) it is her first European Championship medal in the -52 kg, the category in which she has competed since the end of the 2016 Olympic Games.