Ukraine Crops 28 Medals at European Judo Cup

Kyiv, April 3, 2012. Ukrainian athletes won the European Cup for cadets U17, held in Kyiv on March 31 – April 1, 2012. Seven gold medals, nine silver, and twelve bronze – such was the result of the Ukrainian team of judokas. Winning 28 out of 64 awards at the tournament, the Ukrainian sportsmen neared their last year’s success, when they won 30 medals.

The competition in Ukraine featured participants under the age of 17. A group of 344 young cadets came to Ukraine from 18 countries to compete in a two-day tournament. At the Cup Georgian team took home 14 medals, including two golds, three silvers, and nine bronzes. This result was the second best team achievement at the European Cup for cadets in Kyiv.

Serbian team had the third result, winning two gold awards. Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey, and the UK managed to win one medal each.

Ukrainian athletes won awards in categories of 90+ kg (Fedir Panko, gold), 90 kg (Oleksiy Lysenko, bronze), 81 kg (Oleksandr Lohvynenko, gold, Yuriy Asmolov, silver), 73 kg (Sergiy Kryvchach, silver, Hrachyk Avahian, bronze), 70+ kg (Halyna Kovalska, silver, Anastasia Shevchuk, bronze), 70 kg (Anastasia Shashyna, silver, Karina Statyvkina, bronze, Tamara Dychko, bronze), 63 kg (Kateryna Protasova, gold, Sofia Darchuk, silver, Veronika Medynska, bronze, Natalia Filatova, bronze), and 57 kg (Yana Shevchenko, bronze). Additionally, Leonid Hasiuk received a bronze medal in the second-day competition.

Ukrainians Ivanna Stytsun (44 kg category), Yulia Khramova (52 kg), Maksym Tokarchuk (under 50 kg), and Bohdan Yadov (55 kg) won gold. Silver went to Anastasia Verbytska (44 kg), Iryna Skopych (48 kg), Bekirbek Margoev (50 kg), and Mykhailo Shashyn (66 kg). Three Ukrainian athletes got bronze awards – Dariia Havriushenko (under 40 kg), Andriy Holubov (60 kg), and Christian Badzo (66 kg).

Previously, Ukrainian team won top awards at the European Championships U23 in Tyumen, Russian Federation, on November 18-20, 2011. Kendzhau Niabali (90 kg) won silver. Maria Buiek and Shushana Hevondian won the respective gold and silver medals in the 52 kg category. Ukrainian Ivanna Makukha (78 kg) won bronze.

At the Judo World Cup among male and female judokas in Apia on November 11-13, 2011, Ukraine got five medals – one gold (Artem Bloshenko, 100 kg), three silvers (Viacheslav Denysov, 100kg; Oksana Didenko, 63 kg; Natalia Smal, 70 kg), and a bronze (Viktoria Turks, 78 kg).