Brazil Wins Four Medals at the European Open Championships
Rochelle Nunes (+ 78kg), Eric Takabatake (60kg) and Alex Pombo (73kg) won bronze medals, while Samantha Soares (78kg) got the silver one.
Brazil reached five fights for medals on Saturday, February 28th, during the European Open of Prague (women) and Warsaw (men). Alex Pombo (73kg), Eric Takabatake (60kg), Rochelle Nunes (+ 78kg) and Samantha Soares (78kg) reached the podium, bringing four medals to the Brazilian team. There are six competitors left to enter the mat on Sunday 29th, the last day of the men’s competition in Poland.
The first one who got a medal was the extra-lightweight Eric Takabatake. He was defeated in the semifinal against Dyiorbek Urozboev (UZB), but he recovered in the fight for bronze against Ahmet Sahin Kaba (TUR), managing to score a waza-ari . "I'm happy with the bronze. I felt at ease today and this helped me a lot in my performance. However, I still believe it could have gone even further," Eric said.
Then it was Alex Pombo (73kg)’s turn to make Brazil stand on the podium. He also had to recover from a defeat in the semifinals against the Southern Korean Changrim An and he got a beautiful ippon against Khomula Artem (UKR) in the fight for third place.
There were three female athletes to disputes for medals and finished the competition with a bronze and a silver. The highlight was the half-heavyweight Samanta Soares who had to face the Olympic vice-champion Gemma Gibbons (GBR) in the final fight of the category, a tough one in which the Brazilian eventually lost by waza-ari and so she took the silver. Rochelle Nunes (+ 78kg) was the day’s fourth athlete to get on the podium after winning a bronze in confrontation against the German Carolin Weiss, thanks to a waza-ari.
"Samantha and Rochelle deserve congratulations for their medals, but mostly for how they’ve got to the podium." said the women’s coach, Rosicleia Campos, who also reminded the performance of another pupil of her, the middleweight Barbara Timo who lost the bronze contention against Linda Bolder (ISR). "The medal did not come, but Barbara made great fights," Rosi added.
Eight other Brazilian judokas competed on Saturday but failed to reach the finals. On Sunday, Leandro Guilheiro (81kg), Felipe Costa (81kg), Eduardo Bettoni (90kg), Rafael Buzacarini (100kg), Luciano Correa (100kg) and Walter Santos (+ 100kg) will fight in the second and last day of the Open Warsaw. In Prague, the disputes ended on Saturday. The teams board to the flight back home on Monday.
