43rd SENIOR EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP IN KARATE

Tallinn, Estonia, 2 May 2008

The participation of Bosnian-Herzegovinian karate athletes in the 43rd European Senior Championship will be remembered by the performance of our best athlete Arnela Odzakovic, member of Karate Team Bushido from Sarajevo.
On the first day of the competition, performing brilliantly Odzakovic simply walked through to the finals and swept away all her opponents, not losing a single point.
In the first round she beat Macedonia’s representative 3:0, then Czech Republic’s representative 2:0, Germany’s representative 2:0 and in the semi-finals Spain’s Gomez 1:0.
In the final match held the same day in the afternoon, Odzakovic was defeated by Switzerland’s representative in overtime 2:1.
The two opponents who know each other very well were cautious from the very beginning, taking into account that the slightest mistake could cost them dearly.
Arnela was the first to use the Swiss athlete’s lack of caution and took the lead 1:0, skillfully trying to keep the advantage to the end and almost succeeding.
But in the last seconds of the match the Swiss representative succeeded in tying the score 1:1 and in overtime she took the lead with 2:1 and won the gold medal.
Arnela Odzakovic for the second time in a row won second place and the silver medal in the European Karate Championship and thus confirmed her standing as the most successful BiH athlete.
On the last day of the competition, BiH girls surprised us pleasantly with a bronze medal in team fights.
Arnela Odzakovic, Lejla Ferhatbegovic, Mirsada Suljkanovic and Una Halilagic fought their way brilliantly to the semi-finals and won the bronze medal.
In the first round they beat Greece 2:0, then Turkey with one point’s difference 1:0, and finally Slovakia after the same number of points and an additional fight.
Arnela Odzakovic effectively won the crucial additional match 7:1.
In the semi-finals, our representatives were defeated by Italy 2:1.
In the last determining match our girls beat the Czech team and for the fourth time in a row won a European medal.
A total of 509 competitors from 42 European countries participated in the 43rd European Karate Championship.
Bosnia-Herzegovina was 11th in the final ranking.

Admir Muminovic

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