The judoka Julia Figueroa, double Olympic participant in 2016 and 2021faces this Friday its first relevant event of the year by participating in the Sofia European. The woman from Cordoba will fight for the podium in an event that will include the participation of 362 judokas from 40 countries in all categories.
Figueroa is one of the 21 registered in -48 kilos and the fourth seed, only behind the French Shirine Boukli, the Portuguese Catarina Costa and the Israeli Shira Rishoni. The first fights will start at 9:30 am and the duels for the medals will start at 4:00 pm.
The woman from Cordoba, who is number 10 in the world ranking, will face her sixth European since its debut in the edition held in 2014 in Montpellier. Since then has achieved a bronze medal, in 2019 at the European Games in Minsk, because the European Championship has been part of the program of the European Games in two of its participations. Last year he ranked seventh in Lisbon.
Julia Figueroa, 31, has two Olympic participations in her record. The best judoca from Cordoba in history, she debuted at the Games in 2016 in Rio, an event in which she fell in the first combat. Already in 2021 she won her premiere but lost in the round of 16. Now he wants to qualify for the 2024 Olympiad in the qualifying phase that will start in a month and will last two years.
The judoka trained at the Kodokán Córdoba club will seek her second international podium of 2022 in Sofia, as she achieved a bronze in February at the Grand Slam in Tel-Aviv.
