By Caoilte de Barra
Day four of the 2022 European Championships has come to a close. The action got underway at 11 am local time, with the semi-finals taking place for seniors and the finals for juniors.
The senior semi-finals kickstarted the day. In the strawweight division, Poland’s Magdalena Czaban overcame France’s Delphine Benouaich in a tough bout. She will meet Songuel Karatorak in tomorrow’s final after the German standout defeated England’s Kelly Staddon today.
The featherweight division continued to deliver as Ireland’s Keith Keogh, and Israel’s Moshe Aladi delivered one of the best bouts of the tournament. Aladi edged the Irishman on the scorecards and will meet France’s Ammar Mazri in the final.
Norway’s Cecilie Bolander made her return to IMMAF competition after winning a silver medal at the World Championships. Bolander utilised her signature armbar to secure a slot in the final. Across from her will be England’s Summer Onley, who showed off her submission skills by submitting Italy’s Sonia Fracassi via armbar.
In the Junior finals, the Czech Republic’s Patrik Kutil won the nation’s first European gold medal and was quickly followed by teammate Tagir Machmudov, who took Middleweight gold.
Poland scored their first gold medal of the tournament as Dominika Steczkowska defeated Lithuania’s Lijana Lipinskaite via decision. Finland also won gold through Omar Tugraev after he won his fourth bout in as many.
The remaining five finals saw some of Ukraine’s youth graduates continue to shine and take home plenty of gold. Ivan Pasych, Anastasiia Holinko, Andrii Stoian, Oleksandr Huliaiev and Viacheslav Holenko all topped the podium for Ukraine.
Tomorrow is the final day of competition, where the senior finals take place, with the bouts starting at 11 am local time. The full schedule for Day 5 of the 2022 European Championships can be found here. Live brackets and a list of medalists can be found on Smoothcomp, and today’s results can be found here.
Watch the 2022 IMMAF European Championships live and exclusively from Bella Italia Efa Village in Lignano Sabbiadoro (Italy) from 27 September and 1 October 2022 at immaf.tv.
