Riga Junior Cup: Germany’s three-title push edges a wide-open Sunday, Sweden strikes twice

The Junior European Cup in Riga delivered a busy, competitive weekend, pulling in 242 judoka from 27 nations. Latvia had the home crowd behind them but couldn’t turn that support into a medal this time. What stood out instead was how spread the success was: on Sunday alone, seven different nations ended the day on top of the podium.

A deep German squad turned finals into a gold run.

Germany’s surge started at -66 kg, where Florian Boecker took the title by defeating Moldova’s Radu Izvoreanu in the final. The same division added more hardware for Germany through Martin Setz, who secured bronze, with Croatia’s Dani Klacar also stepping onto the podium.

Germany then struck again at -100 kg as Jannis Baschin beat Dutchman Giel Dol for gold. The Netherlands still left with medals thanks to Lars Vissers taking bronze, while Estonia’s Jakob Vares also claimed a place on the podium. The third German gold came in the women’s -70 kg category: Eva Ronja Buddenkotte won the final against Belgium’s Valerie Tombou, and Germany added a second medal there as Nele Noack collected bronze alongside Croatia’s Jana Cvjetko.

Sweden’s double gold came in two of the most watched men’s weights.

Sweden made the men’s divisions feel electric, especially in -73 kg, the biggest men’s field with 40 competitors. Narek Vardanian delivered the win over Moldova’s Vlad Mitru, with Renat Croitoru (Moldova) and Great Britain’s Thomas Jackson taking bronze. Sweden followed that with another title at -81 kg, where Alexander Marlov defeated Ukraine’s Anton Klymenko; Adrian Gandia (Puerto Rico) and Great Britain’s Rory Tyrrell earned bronze.

Across the rest of the event, Europe’s results kept stacking up: Ukraine swept the -60 kg final as Denys Tupytskyi beat Serhii Kim, and later added heavyweight gold through Fedir Yaroshenko. Poland’s Wiktoria Slazok won -48 kg, Spain went one-two at -52 kg, Croatia’s Nina Cvjetko took -63 kg, Great Britain controlled -78 kg, and Belgium topped +78 kg. Germany’s three gold medals ultimately made the difference in the overall standings, but the bigger story was just how many teams were in the mix.

Source: JudoInside