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.
Photo: BELGA
The very young was killed in the same weight category as Van Snick Amber Ryheul (22 years old) against Romanian Andreea Chitu in the second round after taking the measure of Turkish Irem Korkmaz in the first round.
In the category up to 48 kilograms was correct Anne-Sophie Jura the Italian Francesca Milani in the first round, but she lost in her second round due to an excessive error rate from the French Shirine Boukli, sixteenth in the world ranking.
Ellen Salens in I Libeer didn’t even survive their first round. Salens was eliminated by the Spanish Mireia Lapuerta Comas, Libeer lost to the Serbian Marica Perisic.
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