The final day of the Junior European Judo Championships 2025 in Bratislava brought the team event into focus, with France reclaiming the mixed team crown last won in 2022. Once again T\u00fcrkiye were their opponents, just as in 2021 and 2022, and once again it was France who stood tallest, securing the junior European title with authority.<\/p>\n
The showdown featured the two powerhouses of European judo. France had endured a difficult season in team competitions, failing to medal at the senior Europeans and Worlds, but in Bratislava their juniors delivered in style, improving on last year\u2019s silver with a resounding gold.<\/p>\n
Celia Cancan set the tone in the opening +70kg contest, overwhelming T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s Ceylan Kocabey in under a minute. Though Ibrahim Tataroglu answered for T\u00fcrkiye with victory over Kevin Nzuzi Diasivi, that would be the only point they collected. France swept the remaining bouts, with Emma Melis, Dayyan Boulemtafes and Teophila Darbes-Takam all producing decisive wins to close out a 4:1 triumph.<\/p>\n
For T\u00fcrkiye, it was a second consecutive silver, yet coach Sinan Sandal still found positives: \u201cIt is perfect, because this was a very difficult championship for our team. To reach the final and take a medal is already very good. At the World Championships we hope to go one step further and take gold. I trust my team.\u201d<\/p>\n
For France, the success marked not only a return to form but also the first major triumph for new junior women\u2019s team coach P\u00e9n\u00e9lope Bonna. The former international was visibly moved: \u201cIt\u2019s a very good medal, and my first as a junior coach. I love this team, and I love this job. This victory is important not only for today but also for Lima. It shows we are on the right path.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final day also marked history for Switzerland, debutants in the mixed team event. They impressed immediately with wins over Greece and Azerbaijan, both by 4:2, before being stopped in the semi-finals by T\u00fcrkiye. In the bronze medal contest against Romania, the Swiss edged ahead 3:2 before Thien Oulevey delivered the decisive victory in the last bout. His hold-down sealed Switzerland\u2019s first-ever team event medal. Technical Director Dominique Hischier summed up the moment: \u201cIt\u2019s a great day for us and for Swiss judo. We asked the team to fight free, round by round, and they made history. This medal shows that Switzerland is working at a high level and inspires others to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the neighbouring mat, Germany battled for bronze against Azerbaijan. The tie, just as tense, went to the final match. With Germany ahead 3:2, Paul Friedrichs secured the medal with an early waza-ari and solid control to the end. Udo Quellmalz, Germany\u2019s women\u2019s junior head coach, praised his team: \u201cEveryone gave their heart. Even with injuries and athletes out of their weight class, the team showed spirit. Rankings on paper don\u2019t matter in team events\u2014what matters is heart. This medal proves that.\u201d<\/p>\n
With France on top, T\u00fcrkiye runners-up, and Switzerland and Germany sharing bronze, the mixed team competition was a fitting finale to a week of drama and rising stars. Defending champions Azerbaijan missed the podium, underlining the unpredictable nature of team judo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final day of the Junior European Judo Championships 2025 in Bratislava brought the team event into focus,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-406273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115165294961503900","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}