Spanish judo has won up to six medals in the Olympic Games but has not been on the podium since Isabel Fernández’s gold in Sydney 2000. Six editions later, Fran Garrigós seems destined to end this metal drought. The judoka from Móstoles, who had already become world champion last year in Doha, has achieved continental gold today in Zágreb (Croatia).
This is the sixth consecutive time that Garrigós, number 1 in the world ranking in the -60 kilo category, manages to get on the podium in a European Championship. The streak began in Minsk (Belarus) with a silver in the European Games, which that 2019 They replaced the usual continental championship.
A year later, in Prague, he had to settle for bronze, to win his first two golds in Lisbon 2021 and Sofia 2022. Already last year in Montpellier, new bronze, to which we must add today’s gold in the Croatian capital. Garrigós, 29 years old, had already achieved his first continental bronze in Warsaw 2017. He also has a world bronze in Budapest 2021. Enough arguments to think that he should be in the Olympic box this coming summer in Paris.
The road to gold
In this European Championship he started as the first seed and, as such, was exempt in the first round. Already in the second, He beat the Italian Andrea Carlino by Ippon, the same technique with which he got rid of the Belgian Jorre Verstraeten in the quarterfinals. In the semi-finals he hoped the Turkish Salih Yildiz, whom he surpassed with a third Ipponshowing overwhelming superiority in each of these three fights.
The final pitted him against Azerbaijani Balabay Aghayevnumber 6 in the world ranking, and the result was once again the same: victory for Ippon to confirm his status and expand his record.
Garrigós had already been world and European champion the same season, but it was in the junior category when he was 19 years old. Then he won first in the continental championship in Bucharest 2014, to confirm his great moment just a month later at the World Cup in Fort Lauderdale (Florida). On March 8 he had won the Grand Prix Upper Austria, a month after being bronze in the Paris Grand Slam. A history that invites you to dream of the city of the Seine as your final destination.
Ariane Toro, bronce
Ariane Toro is only 20 years old, but it already stands out in the main competitions. The Pamplona native, who already won gold in the Tbilisi Grand Slam and bronze in the Paris and Baku GPs, has just won bronze (-52 Kg) in the European Championship after beating the Cypriot Sofia Asvesta by Ippon. For his part, Alberto Gaitero was very close to reaching bronze, although he left without getting on the podium.
2024-04-25 16:51:24
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