2018 European Judo Championships

The decision to hold the senior European Judo Championships in Israel followed positive feedback the Israel Judo Association had received for its organization of the 2016 European Under-23 Championship.[3] Israel Judo Association chairman Moshe Ponti described the senior event as a historic opportunity for Israeli judoka to demonstrate their quality to the country. He hoped that a successful tournament could position Israel to host future Grand Prix or Grand Slam events and named bringing a World Championship to Israel as his ultimate ambition as association chairman.[3]

The 2018 edition was structured as an individual competition only, without a team category—the first time the championships had used that format since 2009.[4] A reported 375 judoka from 44 countries registered to compete, described as a record field for the event.[4][2] Israel entered 17 athletes across the women's and men's weight divisions. The competition began on Thursday, April 26, and concluded on Saturday, April 28.[1][2]

In the lead-up to the championships, the Israeli women's team was notably depleted: former European champion Yarden Gerbi and Linda Bolder had retired, and Gili Cohen was injured.[8] Timna Nelson Levy entered as a senior Israeli contender, competing in her third European Championships. She had won bronze on her debut in Kazan two years earlier and, according to the preview, had not finished lower than seventh in any competition since that breakthrough.[8]

Israel opened the competition with two bronze medals on the first day, as Gefen Primo and Tal Flicker reached their respective podiums.[9][10]

Primo, who had recently turned 18 and was making her senior European Championships debut, won bronze in the women's under-52-kilogram category.[9][10] She defeated Sofia Asvesta of Cyprus and Charline Van Snick of Belgium before losing to Evelyne Tschopp of Switzerland in the quarterfinal.[9] Advancing through the repechage, she beat Anja Stangar of Slovenia and then Irem Korkmaz of Turkey in a comeback bronze-medal bout. After Korkmaz scored a waza-ari, Primo scored twice herself, with the second score producing an ippon.[9][10] The result was described as unexpected given Primo's age.[10] After the medal, she said: "I wanted to win the gold, but bronze is also good. I'm so happy."[9]

Flicker earned bronze in the men's under-66-kilogram category.[9][10] His path included wins over Nathan Burns of Ireland and Vadim Bunescu of Moldova, a quarterfinal defeat by Adrian Gomboc of Slovenia, and repechage victories over João Crisostomo of Portugal and Marko Gusic of Montenegro. He defeated Gusic by ippon in under 40 seconds.[9][10] Flicker said the home crowd gave him a boost after he felt nervous about competing on Israeli soil.[9]

The headline result came when Sagi Muki won gold in the men's under-81-kilogram class, defeating Belgium's Sami Chouchi in the final.[6] Muki was competing unseeded and in a new weight category, having previously claimed the European title in 2015 at under 73 kilograms.[6] His route to the final included wins over Jonathan Alderu, Matthias Casse, Laszlo Csoknai and Russia's Aslan Lappinagov, who was described as the world number five and a 2017 European bronze medalist. Muki eliminated Lappinagov after the Russian received three penalties.[6] The final went to golden score. After both competitors received two penalties, Chouchi attempted an attack while tiring, and Muki scored the decisive waza-ari.[6] A crowd of 4,000 filled Pavilion 2 for Muki's medal ceremony and joined him in singing Israel's national anthem, "Hatikvah."[5]

Peter Paltchik added a fourth medal for Israel, winning bronze in the men's under-100-kilogram category by defeating Russia's Niyaz Bilalov.[11][1]

Israel finished sixth in the overall medal standings with one gold and three bronze medals. Russia topped the standings with four gold, one silver and three bronze medals.[1] The Israeli medalists were:

• Sagi Muki — Gold, men's under-81 kg[1]
• Tal Flicker — Bronze, men's under-66 kg[1]
• Gefen Primo — Bronze, women's under-52 kg[10]
• Peter Paltchik — Bronze, men's under-100 kg[11][1]

For Muki's medal ceremony, 4,000 spectators filled Pavilion 2 to capacity and joined him in singing "Hatikvah."[5] A later Times of Israel article relayed sports columnist Paz Chasdai's view that the event sold out not merely because of interest in judo, but because of the emotional appeal of seeing Israel's national anthem performed at a winner's podium on home soil.[12] This was an attributed interpretation of the crowd's motivation rather than an independently established explanation.

Reports from the competition credited the home crowd with encouraging Israeli athletes during their bouts.[9][5] For the Israel Judo Association, hosting the championships represented a milestone in the sport's domestic development. Before the event, chairman Moshe Ponti presented successful production as a possible step toward hosting future Grand Prix, Grand Slam or World Championship events in Israel.[3]

Contemporary reports disagree on the event's venue designation and schedule. A Jerusalem Post preview listed the Drive-In Arena and dates of April 26–29, while an opening-day report from the same outlet described a three-day competition at the Tel Aviv Convention Center.[8][9] Ynet's final-day report states that the championships took place in Tel Aviv from April 26 to 28, while its draw report identifies the competition hall as Pavilion 2 of the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds.[1][2] The cited reports do not reconcile the different venue labels or date ranges.

The sources also report Gefen Primo's weight category inconsistently. Ynet's Russian-language final-day report lists her bronze in the women's under-48-kilogram category, while Sport1 and Ynet's pre-competition draw report place her in the under-52-kilogram category.[1][10] The medal is therefore listed here at under 52 kilograms, the division supported by those two event-specific accounts.[2][10]