Judoka Jur Spijkers won gold at the heavyweights at the European championships in Sofia on Sunday. The 25-year-old Tilburger won the final in the class over 100 kilograms from the German Johannes Frey.
Spijkers soon got his opponent on the ground with an arm swing and continued on the edge of the tatami. The German lay on his back without a chance. “I have won all my matches on ippon and that is a nice feeling,” said the 25-year-old Tilburger after his victory march in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
Spijkers was placed fourth, so he counted himself among the favorites in advance. “So you can’t say I’m a surprising winner. I work hard for it and it’s about everything falling into place once. That was the case here,” said the judoka, who feels at home with the heavyweights. “I don’t have to make an effort for that, because I’ve weighed more than 100 kilos since I was sixteen. I’m only getting heavier. But there is an ideal weight that I feel good about and I adjust my diet to that. “
Spijkers met his strongest opponent in the semifinals in the Georgian Goeram Tushishvili. “He was world champion in 2018 and in the Tokyo Olympics he won silver, but it turned out to be a short fight. It was difficult because one wrong move and it could be over, but luckily it fell my way,” he said about The fight, which lasted a little over 2 minutes, in which he unexpectedly knocked his opponent down.
Bronze Meyer
Roy Meyer (30) had recently won a bronze medal in the same class. The resident of Breda defeated the Hungarian Richard Sipocz and thus earned his second bronze European Championship medal.
Silver again Steenhuis
Guusje Steenhuis from Grave won European Championship silver for the fifth time in the class up to 78 kg. The number four in the world lost in the final with warazi to the German Alima Böhm.
The 29-year-old Steenhuis has already won gold six times in a grand slam tournament, but has never been on the top step in title tournaments. She already had a silver and a bronze European Championship plaque.
In Sofia, she injured her left wrist in her semifinal against Patricia Sampaio. In the final against the only 23-year-old Böhm, she could only do judo with one hand. She completed the four minutes, but there was no more in it.