The Senior European Judo Championships kick off tomorrow and will last until Sunday on the tatamis of the ‘Sud de France’ Arena in Montpellier. 400 athletes from 46 nations will participate in the maximum continental competition, including 17 Italians.
The European Championships, in addition to assigning the continental titles, are very important for climbing the world ranking valid as Olympic qualification for Paris 2024. Among the blue stars there is also Odette Giuffrida looking for her third Olympics (after the silver in Rio 2016 and the bronze at Tokyo 2020) and thanks to a gold and a silver at the 2020 and 2021 European Championships.
She is currently sixth in the 52kg rankings.
Another point of the women’s national team is Assunta Scutto, a 21-year-old emerging star, who already has 2 world bronze medals in the 48 kg category to her credit. But there will also be room for Alice Bellandi (78 kg) thanks to the excellent results of the last races with a European bronze in 2022 and a world bronze in 2023.
In the men’s team, in addition to witnessing the return of Fabio Basile – Olympic gold medalist in Rio 2016 – you will have to keep an eye on Christian Parlati, who will try to improve on his 2021 bronze and Antonio Esposito, also a continental bronze, but in 2022.
“It’s a complicated European Championship – comments Francesco Bruyere, coach of the women’s team -, with a very high level and a lot of qualified competition that wants to gain points in the Olympic ranking. For us the objective is twofold: to collect points and seek a valuable medal with the our best athletes.
We come from the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam where we won three gold medals and which challenged us physically and mentally; we rested a few days and are ready to go again. We ask the team for further commitment, but they are still in excellent shape, motivated, united and aggressive.”
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
2023-11-02 14:44:28
#Judo #European #Championships #starting #tomorrow #view #Paris #Sports
