Esther Stam, new member of the Georgian women’s judo team, became champion at European Open which took place in Madrid. The naturalized Georgian (70 kg) held 4 fights on the Spanish tatami and easily won all of them.
In 1/8 final Stam beat Maria Del Mar Paredes of Spain. Then, she defeated Jennifer Pitzanti of Italy. In semifinal Stam won over Margaux Pinot of France. In the decisive fight Esther beat Giulia Cantoni of Italy.
Esther Stam earned 100 ranking points and perhaps, she will be in the 70th place in world ranking.
Today members of the Georgians men’s team also wrestled on tatami. Giorgi Nadiradze (90 kg), Guram Tushishvili (100 kg) and Rostom Khakhaleishvili (+100 kg) lost the first round.
Nadiradze failed to Aleksander Marmeljuk of Estonia. Khakhaleishvili lost to Andriy Kolesnyk of Ukraine.
Tushishvili defeated Sergio Trillo of Spain but then lost to Toma Nikiforov of Belgium.
Otar Maglakelidze
