The European youth judo competition, which took place?in the Czech resort city of Teplitsa, has drawn to close. Some 400 athletes from 40 different countries took part in the competition, including winners of last year's championship and other prestigious sporting events. The athletes were competing for 16 sets of medals. The judo federations of France, Italy, Holland, Ukraine and Russia were represented in all categories of the competition. Teams from the UK, Germany and Poland were represented by 15 athletes each.
The Russian team won team classification leaving the?Italian and Ukrainian judo-players behind. Three Ingush judoists participated in the championship. Unus-Hadji Hutiev represented Russia in the weight category below 60 kilograms. On his way to the gold medal he thrashed his more famous counterparts from Latvia (Lukosevich) and Azerbaijan (Rahimli). Sports experts considered his game in the final match against Ukrainian athlete Melenkovskii as brilliant.
The other young star from Ingushetia, Suleiman Vyshegurov, competed in the weight category below 73 kilograms. He won all his matches except for the final one, being one step away from the "gold" medal.
The most challenging way to a medal fell to the lot of another Ingush judo-player - Ismail Hamhoev, who represented Russia in the weight category below 81 kilograms. A real drama took place in the semi-final - two seconds before the final whistle, the Ingush player decided the fight was finished and the judge signaled "pad" and he lost due to this confusion. There is every chance that lack of experience of participating at this level played a substantial role.
The Russian judo-team was made up from the medal winners of the Russian youth judo championship, which took place in Nalchik, and participants of international tournaments. "Four gold medals is a good result for our team," noted the couch of the Russian team Vladimir Gladchenko. "After last year's triumph I expected less brilliant results. We could have win three more gold medals, but for mistakes of the team leaders in some categories." The coach also noted that he expects the same good results from next year's team.
Pavel Tsoroev. Exclusively for VK.
