Daniel Gavilán from Madrid won the bronze medal at the European Judo Championship for the Blind, which is held at the Cagliari Sport Palace ‘Palapirastu’ in the capital of Sardinia (Italy). In the maximum continental competition, which was postponed last year due to the pandemic and the celebration of the Tokyo Paralympic Games, Sergio Ibáñez and María Manzanero also participated, who finished fifth.
Daniel Gavilán started his participation in minus 60 kilos for visually impaired athletes (J2) in the quarterfinal round, in which he got rid of the Moldovan Vadim Cretu with authority. But the Georgian Zurab Zurabiani cut him off from the final and he had to fight for one of the bronze medals against the French Youn Balcou. Although neither of the two rivals managed to score either in regulation time or in the golden technique, the victory went to the Spaniard, who had taken the initiative at all times, due to having fewer warnings.
Sergio Ibáñez, for his part, beat Moldovan Ion Tarita in the first round of J2 -73 kg in a fight that lasted just over a minute. He then outlasted Azerbaijani Nanig Abasli with more difficulty, as he had to wait until the last second to win by ippon. In the semi-finals the man from Zaragoza was not so lucky and was beaten by the Georgian Giorgi Kaldani in a very close confrontation. And in the fight for bronze he was also unable to overcome Lithuanian Osvaldas Bareikis, so he finished fifth.
In the category of less than 57 kilos for total blind judokas (J1), Madrid’s María Manzanero lost in the quarterfinal match against Italy’s Asia Giorfanoy, and she was also unable to defeat Turkey’s Merve Uslu in the fight for bronze.
The three athletes were accompanied by the judo technical director of the Spanish Federation of Sports for the Blind, Marina Fernández; coaches Sonia Andonegui and Raúl Clemente; the doctor Diego Toro and the physiotherapist Marta Moro.
After the Tokyo Paralympic Games, the International Federation of Blind Sports introduced an important change in judo tests, consisting of organizing the competition based on the athlete’s disability and not only on his body weight, as had been done until then. . As a consequence, categories J1 are created for totally blind judokas and J2 for those with limited remaining vision. This is intended to protect the most disabled contenders, whose participation had been declining in recent years.
With this rule change, J1 and J2 judokas do not compete against each other unless there are not enough participants. In that case and by mutual agreement, they could do so. At present, the competition consists of four men’s tests for J1 and as many for J2 (less than 60 kilos, less than 73, less than 90 and more than 90) and the same in the female category (less than 48, less 57, less than 70 and more than 70 kilos).
About 100 judokas from Azerbaijan, Croatia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Ukraine, Georgia, Switzerland and Turkey.
