Balkan Championship: Greek triumph in Juniors Men

Four months before the World Championship the Greek team in Juniors Men proved their very good condition in the Balkan Championship U20, which was held with great success in the EAK of Neapolis in Larissa. With 11 medals in total -two of which gold- the hosting country reached the first place, while Serbia was second and Romania third. On the other hand, the team of Juniors Women gained two medals but, in all, proved to be promising for the future.

 

Dimokritos Manousaridis, Nikos Mouzenidis, Michalis Alexiadis and Dimitra Androutsou were the great protagonists of the Greek team. Manousaridis (-60kg) -third in the European U17 in 2006- beat Aleksandar Kostov from Bulgaria in the final, while in the Greek final in -73kg Mouzenidis beat David Tsokouris in hantei. The final in +100kg proved to be an easy fight for Alexiadis (3rd in European U20 in 2008 and also 3rd in European U17 in 2006) since he beat Martin Marinkov with Ippon (two Waza-ari), while in one more Greek-Bulgarian final in -63kg Androutsou beat Elena Grigorova with Ippon.

 

Apart from Tsokouris, who was beaten by Mouzenidis (-73kg) and found himself in the second place, Christos Keletzian (-100kg) was second as well, after he was defeated by Daniel Dichev from Bulgaria. The bronze medals for Greece were won by the following athletes: Nikos Artzanidis and Sarntonis Filippidis in -55kg, Kosmas Setsidis in -66kg, Odysseas Tzeiranidis and Grigoris Votikas in -90kg, Giorgos Lamprinidis in +100kg and Vasiliki Limperopoulou in +78kg.

 

Turkey’s first place in Junior Women

The first place in women was decided by the bronze medals. Turkey got three bronze in total, and finally got the first place, since Bosnia-Herzegovina got two bronze medals, though both countries had an equal number of gold ones.

 

Majlinda Kelmendi from Albania, who was the only representative of her country in the Balkan Championship, found no difficulty in beating Gergana Vatsova (from Bulgaria) in the final and got the gold medal. That was the third medal for 18 year-old Kelmendi this year (she will participate in the World Championship in Athens, in October), since he was 3rd in the World Cup in Prague and 1st in the International Tournament U20 in Austria.

 

Men U20

-55kg

1 DOGAN Murat TURKEY

2 YANAKOV Borislav BULGARIA

3 ARTZANIDIS Nikos GREECE

3 FILIPPIDIS Sarntonis GREECE

-60kg

1 MANOUSARIDIS Dimikritos GREECE

2 KOSTOV Aleksandar BULGARIA

3 BRATULESCU Catalin ROMANIA

3 COSIC Igor SERBIA

-66kg

1 DRAGAN Lucic BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

2 PETRACHE Andrei ROMANIA

3 REDZHEPOV Adem BULGARIA

3 SETZIDIS Kosmas GREECE

-73kg

1 MOUZENIDIS Nikos GREECE

2 TSOKOURIS David GREECE

3 KOVACEVIC Ljubisa SERBIA

3 SILJEGOVIC Stefan BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

-81kg

1 BODIRLAU Cristian ROMANIA

2 DOSEN Bojan SERBIA

3 MUMINOVIC Zeljko MONTENEGRO

3 NEVEN Govedarica BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

-90kg

1 GARTNER Luka SERBIA

2 DEBRENLIEV Miroslav BULGARIA

3 TZEIRANIDIS Odysseas GREECE

3 VOTIKAS Grigoris GREECE

-100kg

1 DICHEV Daniel BULGARIA

2 KELETZIAN Christos GREECE

3 PRGONJIC Goran SERBIA

3 VULEVIC Nikola MONTENEGRO

+100kg

1 ALEKSIADIS Michalis GREECE

2 MARINKOV Martin BULGARIA

3 LAMPRINIDIS Giorgos GREECE

3 RAICIC Janko SERBIA

MEDALS

 

1

2

3

GREECE

3

2

6

BULGARIA

1

4

1

SERBIA

1

1

4

ROMANIA

1

1

1

BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

1

0

2

TURKEY

1

0

0

MONTENEGRO

0

0

2

 

Women U20

-44kg

1 YALDIZ Hilal TURKEY

2 GRADISTIEANU Maricela ROMANIA

3 DAMYANOVA Yoana BULGARIA

3 MIKIC Aleksandra SERBIA

-48kg

1 AYTEKIN Gamze TURKEY

2 MATEI Ioana ROMANIA

3 DRECUN Milica MONTENEGRO

3 KOMLJENOVIC Dejana BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

-52kg

1 KELMENDI Majlinda ALBANIA

2 VATSOVA Gergana BULGARIA

3 HALUS Roxana ROMANIA

3 SMILJKOVIC Masa SERBIA

-57kg

1 PROLE Zorica SERBIA

2 ILIEVA Ivelina BULGARIA

3 BATMAN Pinar TURKEY

3 VICIU Alexandra ROMANIA

-63kg

1 ANDROUTSOU Dimitra GREECE

2 GRIGOROVA Elena BULGARIA

3 KATIPOGLU Busra TURKEY

3 MILJKOVIC Milana SERBIA

-70kg

1 HARACIC Sabina BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

2 ISPAS Adfelina ROMANIA

3 ISIK Busra TURKEY

3 JANDRIC Ivana SERBIA

-78kg

1 DZHUROVA Tereza BULGARIA

2 ZABIC Jelena SERBIA

3 IVIC Borjana BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

3 PAVEL Simona ROMANIA

+78kg

1 CERIC Larisa BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

2 LOTOROSANU Alina ROMANIA

3 LIMPEROPOULOU Vasiliki GREECE

3 ZHEYNOVA Nadiya BULGARIA

MEDALS

 

1

2

3

TURKEY

2

0

3

BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

2

0

2

BULGARIA

1

3

2

SERBIA

1

1

4

GREECE

1

0

1

ALBANIA

1

0

0

ROMANIA

0

4

3

MONTENEGRO

0

0

1

 

Romania’s dominance in U17

The national anthem of Greece was the only thing that was missing in the Balkan Championship U17 that was also held in EAK in Neapolis. The Greek teams achieved seven medals, two of which were silver and five bronze. Nikoleta Meligaki (-44kg) and Theofilaktos Aggelidis (-81kg) got the second place, while Panagiotis Mavridis (-50kg), Giorgos Papadopoulos (-66kg), Kiriakos Tsitiridis (-73kg), Eleni Mpaltsidou (-44kg), Vasiliki Tsolani (-52kg) were winning five bronze medals for Greece. In the general ranking Greece found itself in the fifth place in Cadets Men and sixth in Cadets Women.

 

Romania got the 1st place in boys and girls as well, gathering 11 medals in total (3-2-1 in boys and 4-0-1 in girls) and was followed by Serbia. The first medal for FYROM in the category of Cadets Men was taken by Dario Taseski and it was the first ever in Balkan Championship. Dario fought in the final of -60kg and was defeated by Todor Georgiev from Bulgaria and, as a result, got the silver medal. So far, FYROM had gained three medals, all in Cadets Women.

 

Montenegro had its share in first places, as well. It gained two gold medals in girls and boys, which were the first in Balkan Championships in U17. The gold medal in Cadets Men was gained by Rijad Dedejic (-81kg) who beat Aggelidis in the final, while in Cadets Women the first place in -63kg was taken by Tanja Bozovic who beat Ozge Akarsu from Turkey in the final.

 

Men U17

-50kg

1 SERES Cristian ROMANIA

2 OZBAY Omer Faruk TURKEY

3 MAVRIDIS Panagiotis GREECE

3 NIKCEVIC Vuk MONTENEGRO

-55kg

1 NIKOLAJEVIC Predrag SERBIA

2 FERARIU Alex ROMANIA

3 MARTIROSYAN Ayshot BULGARIA

3 SAVCI Omer TURKEY

-60kg

1 GEORGIEV Todor BULGARIA

2 TASESKI Dario FYROM

3 SIMSEKGAKAN Tunahan TURKEY

3 VISAN Vlad ROMANIA ROMANIA

-66kg

1 BOGDANOVIC Nenad SERBIA

2 DELIOGLU Abdullah TURKEY

3 IVANOV Ivaylo BULGARIA

3 PAPADOPOULOS Giorgos GREECE

-73kg

1 LUKACS Arnold ROMANIA

2 SIMONKOVIC Stefan SERBIA

3 ELDIN Omerovic BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

3 TSITIRIDIS Kiriakos GREECE

-81kg

1 DEDEJIC Rijad MONTENEGRO

2 AGGELIDIS Theofilaktos GREECE

3 MUSTAFA Jatic BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

3 TATAR Enes TURKEY TURKEY

-90kg

1 DUMINICA Daniel ROMANIA

2 ANDJELIC Slavko SERBIA

3 SEVITNG Mohammed TURKEY

3 VELEV Stefan BULGARIA

+90kg

1 DOYCHINOV Vasil BULGARIA

2 PETRICA Sorin ROMANIA

3 CAVCIC Harun BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

3 JABLAN Nikola SERBIA

MEDALS

 

1

2

3

ROMANIA

3

2

1

SERBIA

2

2

1

BULGARIA

2

0

3

MONTENEGRO

1

0

1

TURKEY

0

2

4

GREECE

0

1

3

FYROM

0

1

0

BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

0

0

3

 

Women U17

-40kg

1 DOANA Amalia ROMANIA

2 BULUT Zehra TURKEY

3 DAMYANOVA Borislava BULGARIA

-44kg

1 SAVIC Julijana SERBIA

2 MELIGAKI Nikoleta GREECE

3 MPALTZIDOU Eleni GREECE

3 YILMAZ Elif TURKEY

-48kg

1 DUMITRASCU Raluca ROMANIA

2 VARBANOVA Magdalena BULGARIA

3 DJURDJEVAC Tamara MONTENEGRO

3 PETROVIC Tamara SERBIA

-52kg

1 FLORIAN Larisa ROMANIA

2 TASTAN Nermin TURKEY

3 POPOVIC Tamara SERBIA

3 TSOLANI Vasiliki GREECE

-57kg

1 DUKIC Jelena SERBIA

2 JAKIC Marija MONTENEGRO

3 KOSARAC Tanja BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

3 LEUCE Maria ROMANIA

-63kg

1 BOZOVIC Tanja MONTENEGRO

2 AKARSU Ozge TURKEY

3 BOJANIC Nikolina BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

3 MARKOVIC Dejana SERBIA

-70kg

1 PANDI Karola ROMANIA

2 TUBA Una SERBIA

3 BAYRAKTAROVA Teodora BULGARIA

3 KRASNIC Elvira MONTENEGRO

+70kg

1 ZABIC Milica SERBIA

2 MILICA Savic BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

3 BIGOVIC Milica MONTENEGRO

3 KITANOVA Gratsiela BULGARIA

MEDALS

 

1

2

3

ROMANIA

4

0

1

SERBIA

3

1

3

MONTENEGRO

1

1

3

TURKEY

0

3

1

BULGARIA

0

1

3

GREECE

0

1

2

BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA

0

1

2

 

 

 

 

 

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