Great joy in the title fights in Podgorica. Judoka Seija Ballhaus has the German team cheered for the first time and crowns their strong tournament.
The 24-year-old prevailed on the second day of the title fights in Montenegro in the finale of up to 57 kg against the Georgian Eteri Liesteliani, which was set to number one. The Hamburg woman gave the German team an unexpected triumph.
Ballhaus celebrates the greatest success of her career so far
For Ballhaus, whose twin sister Mascha became World Cup in the past year and took part in the Olympic Games in Paris, it is the greatest success of her career to date. On the way to the final, the Germans had prevailed against Phila Salonen from Finland, Veronica Toniolo from Italy and Marica Perisic from Serbia.
In 2022 and 2023, Alina Böhm had won the last German judoka EM gold. To date, Sigrid Happ (1975, 1976 and 1977) was the only German European champion (lightweight). In 2024 in Zagreb, the German team remained without a title, at that time Anna-Maria Wagner (silver) and Böhm (bronze) won the only single medals for the German judo bundle.