Patrícia Sampaio is European Junior Champion
19-year-old Patrícia Sampaio, one of the leading Portuguese judo players, had already been a bronze medalist at the World Championships in 2017 in Zagreb.
Today, in the Bulgarian capital, the Portuguese judoka made a ‘perfect’ course with four bouts to reach the European title, three with wins for the highest score and the final with the second highest score.
The judoka successively defeated the Dutch Renee Van Harselaar, the Bulgarian Ilina Stoyanova, the Russian Tamara Lishchenko, and finally in the title fight, the German Christina Faber.
The gold medal of Patrícia Sampaio is the best result of the delegation of 15 Portuguese judokas that competed in these Europeans in Sofia, in a competition in which João Fernando was also in good plan.
The -73 kg judo was crowned Friday’s European runner-up of the category, losing in the final with the Ukrainian Hevorth Manukian, for ‘waza ari’.
Today, Diogo Brites (-100 kg) and Ailton Cardoso (+100 kg) lost in the first matches, while Guilherme Salvador (-90 kg) and Alexandre Teodósio (-100 kg) were eliminated in their second match.
