Brazilian Junior Team Scores One Gold, One Silver and two Bronzes in Austria
The weekend was busy for the junior team who represented Brazil at the Junior European Cup in Leibnitz, Austria, on May 31st and June 1st. And the result was positive. The Brazilian team won one gold, with Camilla Nogueira ( +78 kg ), a silver with Lincoln Neves ( 73kg ) and two bronzes with Larissa Farias ( 44kg ) and Jessica Pereira ( 52kg ).
The high level of competition could be seen from the figures. There were 596 athletes from 35 countries, distributed in 16 weight categories. Besides Brazil, the completion was attended by traditional countries like Japan, France, Russia and Germany.
In order to reach the highest place on the podium, Camilla Nogueira had a lot of work . In the first round, the Brazilian faced Eleonora Geri from Italy and Ruza Dukhturbayeva from Kazakhstan. Before the final, she had to defeat the Russian Anzhela Gasparyan. After going through three hard fights, Camila had to face the German Michelle Goschin in the big decision. And she did great. Camila defeated the opponent by ippon and took the gold medal home.
Lincoln Neves became a vice-champion by defeating Huseyn Rahimli from Azerbaijan in the final. In the second most crowded category of the competition, with 61 judokas - the most crowded one was the lightweight category (66kg) with 72 athletes -, the Brazilian won six fights and he defeated athletes from Russia, Serbia , Germany, Austria and Azerbaijan.
In the extra lightweight ( 44kg ), Larissa Farias vould not defeat the Russian Sabina Gliazova. Having no chance for the gold, the athlete looked for the bronze in the repechage. The judoka won the bronze after winning over the German Jana Acheffold and the Russians Sitora Boymatova and Mariia Lebedeva.
" God knows what I went through to get here. I managed to qualify in one of the strongest competitions of the year and I guarantee the long awaited place in the World Championship. This bronze tastes like gold. “Larissa, the leader of the national rankings, said on her Facebook page.
Jessica Pereira (52kg) went well in the competition, but she was defeated by Distria Krasniqi, an athlete from Kosovo, in the semifinal. In the contention for bronze, she defeated the Romanian Oana Nicolaescu and got on the third place.
"Thank you, God, for another victory. I want to thank everyone who helped me in this achievement and supported me! And especial thanks to my family who are always supporting me and helping me in all! “Jessica said on her Facebook page.
Brazil disputed two more medals with Caio Brigida ( 73kg) and Isadora Pereira (78kg), who finished in the fifth place. All the athletes who competed will be participating in the training camp until Wednesday, when they come back to Brazil.
