Van Lieshout in the final of the European Judo Championships, De Wit also advanced to the final after beating the defending champion

NOS Sports•today, 4:16 PM

Judokas Joanne van Lieshout and Frank de Wit have reached the final at the European championships in Zagreb, Croatia. The 21-year-old Van Lieshout defeated Croatian Katarina Kristo in the semi-finals of the 63 kilo class with waza-ari in the golden score.

Previously, Van Lieshout was too strong for the Bulgarian Joana Manova (waza-ari), Jana Makretskaya from Russia (ippon) and Lubjana Piovesana from Austria (ippon). In the final, the Dutch will meet Renata Zachova from the Czech Republic.

De Wit was too strong for Vedat Albayrak in the semi-finals, who won gold in the 81 kilo class at the last two European Championships. De Wit won on waza-ari against the Kazakh-born judoka, who played for Greece at the Olympic Games in 2016 and has been judo under the Turkish flag since 2018.

De Wit opened his European title battle with a victory over the Finn Oskari Makinen (ippon) and then also defeated the Romanian Adrian Sulca (ippon) and the Irish Maxim Trigub (waza-ari).

Geke van de Berg lost in the same weight class as Van Lieshout (up to 63 kilos) in the eighth finals against the Slovenian Andreja Leski (waza-ari). In her first match she was still too strong for the Turkish Habibe Afyonlu (waza-ari).

It is also over in Zagreb for Hilde Jager and European Championship debutant Koen Heg. Jager still had a chance of winning the medal in the rematch, but lost to Lara Cvjetko from Croatia by ippon.

Heg already lost in the second round to the Finn Turpal Djoukaev (waza-ari).