3 days in Georgia! 3 days in Tbilisi! 3 days of medals! 3 days of pure emotion!
What a successful European Championships for Germany. The EKF Cadet, Junior and U21 Championships 2024 are the biggest age group event in Europe. This time, the high-class event took place in the New Sports Palace in the Georgian capital. This was the first time Georgia had hosted this international karate tournament.
And there were a sensational total of nine medals for Germany, including a silver medal for our PUNOK athlete Ili Hellen (U16 -54kg) from the Mayen karate club Sen5. Unfortunately, she narrowly missed out on the European title in her fight against Italy. Ili won a total of five fights in the preliminary rounds and made the quarter-final extraordinarily exciting. Trailing 0:2, she won her fight 4:2 in the end with a real show of energy.
In the final, Ili put in another great performance, but unfortunately it was not enough for the big title, as the Italian scored 0:3 shortly before the end.
National coach Noah Bitsch was very satisfied with the performances of his athletes: "The fights we showed are absolutely impressive. We are on an excellent and sustainable path, and we will continue on this path together with focus and motivation."
In the end, Ili was also very happy and grateful for the support of her family, home coach and of course thanked her sponsors CENTURY Martial Arts Europe and PUNOK for their trust in her. This is her first European Championship medal.
Mia Bitsch fought in the (U21 -55kg), but unfortunately things didn't go so well for her this time. She lost her first fight 0:2 against her opponent from Denmark. However, Mia is already on her way to Cyprus for a series A and will attack again this weekend.
Sydney Yvon had six outstanding fights and mastered the final against the runner-up from Poland with aplomb. With a lot of fighting spirit and good tactics she won the title with 4:0 in the category (U18 -59kg).
More than 1160 athletes from 49 countries had registered to take part in the event. This number of competitors further extends the tournament's record number of participants - proof of the popularity of karate in Europe.
