Israeli judoka Raz Hershko won the gold medal at the European Judo Championships Seniors Individuals 2024 finals held in Zagreb, Croatia on Saturday – two months ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris.
Hershko (over 78 kg) lost in the competition’s final round in the past two years and won the silver medal, but managed to defeat France’s Julia Tolofua with an ippon. Earlier, world champion Inbar Lanir won the bronze medal. Thus, Israel's medal count in the competition rose to four, after Tamar Malca and Timna Nelson Levy won bronze medals in their categories.
In the semi-finals, 24-year-old Hershko defeated Turkish Kayra Ozdemir, who had accumulated three penalties. In the quarter-finals, she prevailed over Russia’s Elis Startseva, in a waza-ari she scored in the first minute of the fight and maintained until its end, and in the round of 16, she fared well against the Dutch Karen Stevenson, executing an ippon in one minute and 15 seconds from the start of the match.
Hershko added another medal to her collection after she won the bronze medal at the World Championships last year and was part of the team that won the bronze medal in the team competition in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
In July 2023, Hershko was ranked first in the world among women in all weight classes in the ranking of the International Judo Federation, becoming the first Israeli to do so. In December, she won the bronze medal at the prestigious Tokyo Grand Slam, and two months ago she won the bronze medal at the Paris Grand Slam. Now Hershko has to bring home a medal in the most important stage of all: the Olympics.
Inbar Lanir, ranked first in the world in the under 78 kg weight class, won the bronze medal for the second consecutive time. Lanir defeated Patricia Sampaio from Portugal with an ippon after only 19 seconds. Sampaio held a record of 4:1 against Lanir until the match, but that didn’t deter the Israeli from victory.
Lanir is in excellent shape and was awarded the best female athlete title by the International Judo Federation in 2023 after winning the World Championship, as well as the gold medal at the Hungary Masters and silver at the Tokyo Grand Slam.
Her matches in Zagreb began with an ippon victory over the Slovenian Metka Lobnik, in the quarter-finals she won against Ukraine’s Yuliia Kurchenko in just 9 seconds, and lost to the French Audrey Tcheuméo in the semi-finals, a minute before the end of the match.