Barbara Matic won’t be able to fight at the maiden Grand Prix in Zagreb next week. Matic was advised not to fight due to an injury. Matic is the trailblazer of Croatian judo, but there is enough talent to make it an attractive event.
The Dom Sportova will see a lot of new faces that actually practiced last week at the European Open in Sarajevo. One of the surprises was the gold medal for Marko Kumric U100kg who took the victory in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The 25-year old actually claimed his first World Cup victory in his career. Also this year he showed to be in shape in Prague winning bronze, but he had to wait quite a while for that success. The Croatian Champion seems ready for the Grand Prix as one of the peers of Croatian Judo.
The Kumric brothers are both in action U100kg as well as U81kg candidate Dominik Druzeta, potentially Croatia’s best man. For the Best Online Betting Sites, click on and enjoy on who are the favourites.
Croatia is ready for the Grand Prix and welcoming some of the best athletes such as number one seed U81kg Tato Grigalashvili (GEO), Arman Adamian (RUS), Audrey Tcheumeo (FRA) and the return of Andrea Stojadinov of Serbia U48kg. Traditionally a strong Slovenian team with Andreja Leski and Kaja Kajzer. Soon the action starts on your screen live from Zagreb.
Matic is still shining in the latest video promo of the International Judo Federation. Her generation inspired a new youngsters who now have reached senior level as well and included current judo stars such as Karla Prodan, Lara Cvjetko, Iva Oberan and Tihea Topolovec, all youngsters who found their way to the judo stairs of famous athletes in Croatia.
Kumric impressed this weekend with gold but the women couldn’t impress and will need to take the Zagreb Grand Prix as showcase. Ivan Oberan fibished fifth and was the last woman to win a Continental Open for Croatia, in May at home in Zagreb.
In Sarajevo the mainly French dominated the tournament with five gold medals and 8 silver and a total of 24 medals, almost half of the total available. Leonie Gonzalez U52kg, heavyweight Stessie Bastareaud, men’s lightweight Maxime Merlin, heavyweight Joseph Terhec all took the gold and even Loïc Pietri is back with a nice motivation in his old but new class U81kg. But Pietri won’t be fighting in Zagreb, only Joseph Terhec. The French will come though with a great team to Zagreb with the Gneto’s and Tcheumeo. Germany, The Netherlands, Great Britain and Hungary all captured two titles in Sarajevo. Great Britain will also be in Zagreb with Jemima yeats-Brown who has experienced about all weight categories, and is now back to U70kg and seems to have found the pace. In Sarajevo she lost the final to Kelly Petersen-Pollard but took a valuable silver medal. Both will fight in Croatia this weekend.
We look forward to the Moldovan team with both Denis Vieru and Victor Sterpu as number one seeds, a very unique situation for Moldova. Also Dorin Gotonoaga may get far U81kg. Also Russia will have some great athletes such as Aram Grigoryan U66kg, Ayub Khazaliev U73kg, Khusen Khalmurzaev U90kg and Arman Adamian definitely a favourite U100kg in the category of Kumric. Sabina Giliazova and Alesya Kuznetsova are candidates for female gold.