10 things to know about the European Judo Championships

With just a few days to go until 14 British judoka take on Europe’s best at the 2016 European Judo Championships in Kazan, Russia, from 21-24 April, we’ve taken a look through the record books to pull out ten of things to know about the European Championships.

From history to trivia, check out ten things to know about the European Championships with our list below:

1. Germany has hosted the European Championships on more occasions than any other country hosting the event on no fewer than 10 occasions (2 as East Germany, 6 as West Germany, and 2 as United Germany)
2. This is the second time Russia have hosted the event in the last 5 years. The 2012 championships were held in Chelyabinsk.
3. France have won 521 European medals in total, more than any other country. The Netherlands are second with a total of 290 and followed by Great Britain in third with 221.
4. The Netherland’s Anton Geesink has won more European Championship medals (21 golds, 2 silver, 2 bronze) than any other judoka.
5. Diane Bell is Britain’s most successful judoka at the European Championships with a total of 11 medals (3 golds, 3 silver, 5 bronze).
6. In 2005, Euan Burton became the 50th Briton to win a medal at the European Championships.
7. Neil Adams and Karen Briggs both have 5 European Gold Medals each. More than any other British Judoka.
8. Hungary’s Zsuzsa Nagy is the youngest ever judoka to win a gold medal at the European Championships. She won the -61kgs title at the age of 15yrs 197 days at the 1991 Championships in Prague.
9. Ariel Zeevi holds the record for being the oldest judoka to win a gold medal at the European Championships. He was 35 years and 103 days old when -100kg category in 2012.
10. The first Women’s European Championship took place in 1974 in Genoa, Italy and was held separately from the Men’s championships until the 1987 Championships in Paris.

The 14 British Judoka will be in action from Thursday 21st April, with Nekoda Davis (-57kg), Ashley McKenzie (-60kg) and Colin Oates (-66kg) all taking to the mat.

Friday 22nd April will see Alice Schlesinger (-63kg), Amy Livesey (-63kg), Sally Conway (-70kg), Danny Williams (-73kg) and Owen Livesey (-81kg) battle against Europe’s best.

Saturday 23rd April sees action from Natalie Powell (-78kg), Gemma Gibbons (-78kg), Sarah Adlington (+78kg), Frazer Chamberlain (-90kg), Andy Burns (-90kg) and Ben Fletcher (-100kg).

Catch all the action on eju.net and ippon.org from 21st April (preliminary rounds 1300 local time, final block 1730 local time) and tweet your support for the team with #WeAreGBJudo.

Good luck to the British team.