Judokas De Wit and Van Lieshout miss out on European Championship gold 3 months before the Games | Sports Other

De Wit was thrown onto his back after just 46 seconds in the final: ippon. This immediately ended the game on the tatami in Zagreb.

De Wit, number five in the world, opened the European Championships with a victory over the Finn Oskari Mäkinen (ippon) and then also beat the Romanian Adrian Sulca (ippon) and the Irish Maxim Trigub (waza-ari). The best Dutchman in the class up to 81 kilograms was still too strong for the title holder Vedat Albayrak in the semi-finals, but was unable to perform against Grigalashvili.

It was the fourth time that De Wit faced Grigalashvili, the number two in the world. The Dutchman lost all those times.

Van Lieshout took the lead in the battle for the European title with a waza-ari. The Dutch judo revelation seemed to be on her way to her first European title, but was surprised by an ippon from Zachová, the global number 22.

Van Lieshout qualified for the final by beating the Bulgarian Joana Manova (waza-ari), Yana Makretskaya from Russia (ippon) and the Austrian Lubjana Piovesana (ippon). In the semi-finals, the number nine in the world was too strong in the golden score with a waza-ari for the Croatian Katarina Kristo, the number twenty in the world.

Eleven months ago, Van Lieshout won a bronze medal at her World Cup debut in Doha. With the European Championship silver medal and World Cup bronze in her pocket, she is well prepared for the Olympic Games in Paris, which start on July 26.