Odette Giuffrida and more! Italian judo asserted itself at the European Championships in Zagreb, which took place from Thursday 25th to Sunday 28th with the best continental and world judokas.
4 medals and 3 fifth places is the final spoils. First of all, the silver medal of Odette Giuffrida, a judoka already qualified for Paris 2024 and which enriched her already extraordinary palmares. At continental level, she alone boasts one gold (2020) and two silvers (2021 and 2024), without forgetting the two Olympic medals (bronze in Tokyo
2020 and silver in Rio 2016). Giuffrida, in this Croatian event, beat in order Glafira Borisova (Individual Neutral Athletes), Sofia Asvesta (Cyprus) and Reka Pupp (Hungary), before reaching the 52 kg final against the Kosovan, world ranking leader and champion reigning Olympic athlete, Distria Krasniqi.
Also on the first day, Elios Manzi also reached the podium, winning a bronze in the 66 kg category. Manzi, who beat Matteo Piras in an all-Italian final, is at his third continental bronze medal and, with this latest one, he has also earned 350 points which bring him very close to Olympic qualification for Paris.
The second day, Friday 26th, instead revealed a wonderful surprise for the Italian national team: that of Savita Russo, a judoka from Ragusa aged just 18, who went on to get a bronze medal in the 63 kg despite her very young age. She is the third youngest Italian judoka to wear a continental medal around her neck, after the exploits of Laura Zimbaro and Maria Teresa Motta, both bronze medalists at just 17 years of age at the 1981 Madrid Championships.
“Savita was impressive… in her second junior year she established herself with a spectacular judo among the strongest athletes in the world” – commented Francesco Bruyere, women’s head coach.
To close the medal discussion came Gennaro Pirelli in the 100 kg category. The 23-year-old Neapolitan was the protagonist of an excellent ride: overcoming Jorge Fonseca (world champion in Tokyo 2019 and Budapest 2021) in the first round, it was the turn of the Ukrainian Anton Savytskiy, before losing in the quarterfinals to the Azerbaijani Zelym Kotsoiev. Recovered, Pirelli won again with the Serbian Aleksandar Kukolj and then, for the bronze, with the Croatian Zlatko Kumric. It is his first individual European medal and also earns him 350 crucial points for Olympic qualification!
Also worth highlighting are the 3 fifth places achieved by Matteo Piras in the 66 kg, Antonio Esposito in the 81 and the Mixed Team on the final day dedicated to fights between mixed teams.
The icing on the cake was finally a special recognition: Fijlkam President Domenico Falcone was awarded by Eju, which wanted to symbolically express the appreciation for the contribution made to judo in Europe.
For the news of each day and the comments of the protagonists go to the HomePage of the FIJLKAM website.
2024-04-29 11:48:46
#European #Judo #medals #Italy #Giuffrida #Russo #Pirelli #Manzi
