Three European bronze medals in judo
The Belgian team has brought back three bronze medals and a fifth place from the European Judo Championship in Prague. A very enviable overall result!
Gold was of course the most coveted metal, but the results of the Belgian team that competed for three days during the discipline's top European event seem very positive, according to Cédric Taymans, one of the federation's officials: "This continues to be a special competition, where there is much more pressure than during other tournaments such as the Grand Slams or the Grand Prix. Our foreign counterparts keep asking us how we do it..."
In the under 52 kilos category, Charline Van Snick was able to snatch third place by beating the Spaniard Ana Perez Box after a golden score of 9 minutes. Following on from the Liégeoise competitor, Jorre Verstraeten from Leuven also earned himself third place in the under 60 kilos, winning with an ippon. Mortsel native Matthias Casse, reigning European champion and current world number one in the under 81 kg category, also took bronze.
These results suggest that four or five Belgian judokas will qualify for the next Olympics in Tokyo.