Ball – Jorge Fonseca protested, but was eliminated from Europe in the first match (Judo)

The surprise happened at Armeets Arena. A top candidate for the European Champion title At the 71st edition of the tournament that ends today in Sofia, Bulgaria, two-time world champion and top seed Jorge Fonseca (-100 kg) was soon eliminated in his first fight, referring to the second round, by Poland’s Piotr Kuczera ( 67th place in the standings), with Ippon 1.28 minutes left.

Unbeaten this season in a total of 13 battles collected in victories at the Portuguese Grand Prix (January), the European Open in Prague (March) and the Grand Slam in Antalya (April), Jorge, aged 28, started better in the confrontation with the pole . Always more dangerous and getting wazari in 1.02 m.

However, despite Fonseca’s efforts to resolve the standoff, Coxera ended up nullifying the Portuguese champion’s advantage with a counterattack 1.28 meters from the end, resulting in a judo sporting appearance when he rose after unsuccessfully trying to defeat the opponent.

If the referee had started with a wazari recording of the pole, after reviewing the images in a video clip by the referees at the table, the decision was changed to ippon as Fonseca’s protest against the tatami continued, but nothing changed.

To everyone’s surprise, he was the great world champion and bronze medalist at the Tokyo Games, who was overwhelmingly dominant over all the competitors he encountered, early in the road, and had no chance to beat him because, therefore, he had to go to the next round – end quarters.

Jorge Fonseca is competing in the European Championship for the eighth time, this time not winning the coveted title and maintaining the bronze medal in Prague 2020 as his best result ever and the only one on the podium.

Minutes later, Piotr Kuchera reached the semi-finals, also surpassing Spaniard Nikoloz Sherazadishvili (35th), the former under-90kg world champion, who rose this season in the rankings, who faced Fonseca a month earlier in the tournament final. Antalya GS.