Armenian judoist becomes European bronze medalist

Armenia’s Artyom Baghdasaryan (81 kg) won a bronze medal, in his respective weight category, at the 2012 European U23 Judo Championships being held in Prague, capital city of the Czech Republic.

With this achievement, Baghdasaryan became a three-time medal winner at European championships.  In his first bout on the judo tatami, Baghdasaryan defeated his Azerbaijani opponent by ippon—that is, the highest score a judoka can achieve in a fight. Subsequently, he beat Sweden’s representative at extra time, but lost to the Russian athlete in the third match.

Afterward, however, Armenia’s representative defeated his Slovenian and German challengers and captured third place.   Armenia’s boys are fifth, after the second day of competitions, but the country has no representatives in the final day of the tournament.