Renata Zachová is the European judo champion. In the final of the category up to 63 kilograms, she defeated Joanne van Lieshoutová from the Netherlands on ipon and took care of the first women’s title at the judo continental championship for the Czech Republic. Among the men, Lukáš Krpálek won the last gold in 2018, who then celebrated his third triumph at the European Championship.
Zagreb
18:03 April 26, 2024 Share on Facebook
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Czech judoka Renata Zachová | Photo: Nikola Kristc | Source: Profimedia
Twenty-three-year-old Zachová, who was the Czech team’s best hope in the absence of two-time Olympic champion Krpálek, experienced the tournament of her life in Zagreb. She entered it with a win over the Belgian Alessia Corra, who received a third penalty after ten seconds of setup. She ended the next two duels with the European vice-champion from 2020, the Austrian Magdalena Krssaková and the 18-year-old Italian Savita Russová, before the time limit.
She was not far from that even in the semifinals, when she took the favored Leškiová to the ground roughly halfway through the duel and held her. She received a wazari, but seconds before she was to receive an ipon, her opponent sneered at her. Two-time world vice-champion Leškiová then attacked, but was unable to score.
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In the final, the junior European champion from 2020 Zachová avenged her defeat at the March Grand Slam in Tbilisi against last year’s World Championship bronze medalist Van Lieshout. The 21-year-old Dutchwoman scored first shortly before the halfway point of the match, but Zachová immediately countered and flipped the Dutchwoman onto her back. She ended the match at the beginning of the third minute and could celebrate. At the senior championships, her best finish so far was fifth at last year’s EC.
Zachová has ended the twenty-year wait for Czech judokas to win a prize from the European Championships. The last Czech representative on the European stage was Andrea Pažoutová in 2004. In the final, only Lenka Šindlerová in Helsinki 1989 and Michaela Vernerová in Ostend 1997 were ahead of Zachová, but neither of them made it to the title.
Other Czech representatives did not do well on Friday. Věra Zemanová in the category up to 63 kg, Adam Kopecký and Petr Mladý in the category up to 81 kg and Chusniddin Karimov in the category up to 73 kg lost the very first match. On Saturday, Radomír Musil will compete in the category up to 90 kilograms.
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