Gabriela Rudoy is jubilant after defeating Nella Maja Honkaniemi (Finland) in the small final // Photo: uww.org
In the fight for the bronze medal she defeated Nella Maia Honkaniemi from Finland with the score 11:0. On her way to the medal, the 18-year-old Moldovan athlete also defeated Marjana Sumski from Croatia (10:0) and Selma Nord from Sweden (11:0).
Gabriela Rudoi had an opportunity to reach the final and compete for a top medal, but in the semifinals she lost to Leonie Steigert from Germany (0:10), the future silver medalist. The European champion in this weight category was Ruzanna Mammadova from Azerbaijan, who defeated Steigert 4:3.
Elza Gonza (under 50 kg) and Alexandra Moses (under 68 kg) dropped out of the fight at the 1/4 finals stage, Madelina Prisakar (under 59 kg) – in the 1/8 finals, and Corina Bostan (under 53 kg) and Ekaterina Lapina (under 57 kg) failed to pass the qualifying round.
The Moldovan national women’s wrestling team took sixth place among 28 participating teams in the team standings. The first top five were made up of athletes from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Armenia and Turkey.
Gabriela Ruda’s medal became the fourth one won by Moldovan wrestlers at the European U-20 Championship. Earlier, LP reported about the bronze medals won by Greco-Roman wrestler Maxim Sarmanov (up to 55 kg) and freestyle wrestlers Maxim Dimov (up to 65 kg) and Ion Bulgaru (up to 57 kg).
