Nikola Gusic has made a fantastic result at the European games in Baku, which serves also as the Old Continent's official championship in judo. He took 7th place, in a category up to 73 kg, by achieving 3 wins and then losing twice: first in Quarter-finals, and again in a repechage for third. In the Quarter-finals he lost against the Belgian Dirk Van Tichelt, who is ranked 4th on the European ranking list. On his way to the medal, he was finally stopped by a Slovenian Rok Drakšič, who is 5th on the same list. Prior to this, our judist representative has made three victories. In the first round it only took him 35 seconds to throw Akil Gjakova from Kosovo, while he spent 2 minutes and 49 seconds in the second round, before beating Cedric Bessi from Monaco. Gusic made an ippon against a Czech Jaromir Ježek – 15 seconds before the end he was falling behind but managed to make an amazing turnover and solved the match with a substantial ippon. – I am quite pleased; being 7th in Europe in this competition is no easy feat. I came here on a wild-card and managed to justify the invitation. During the preparation period I had an elbow injury which meant I could not train in full capacity, and without this issue I bet I would have been even better. Still, this is a great experience for me, I am about to win a lot of points and climb up the list, and maybe even get among the candidates for the Olympic games – said Gusic. Srđan Mrvaljevic has been defeated in the first round by the British judist Owen Livesey in a category – 81kg. In the finishing stages, when he was in a losing position because he had one penalty more than his opponent, he went all-in and won an ippon two seconds before the end. – I am disappointed, but moving on. There are no bad fighters on largest tournaments, there can only be a bad day. Obviously, I had a bad day – said Mrvaljevic.
