In September, the Turkish Ali Cengiz was declared the winner with a score of 8-7 against Dávid Losonczi.Continue reading
Bernadett Nagy won the bronze medal at the European Wrestling Championships in Bucharest on Thursday. She was the first member of the Hungarian delegation to finish on the podium in the Romanian capital.
The wrestler practically burst into the women’s 76-kilogram field when she won the bronze medal at the 2022 European Championships in Budapest. But the continuation was on hold until this year’s continental tournament, as she suffered a serious knee injury and her full recovery took a year and a half.
The Bucharest championships were Nagy’s second adult continental tournament, and she did not show any signs of the long lay-off.
In Wednesday’s qualifying heats she had two impressive victories, and although she was beaten in the semi-finals – as in Budapest two years ago by the Turkish star, two-time world champion Yasemin Adar, she had a good chance of making Thursday’s playoff against Pauline Lecarpentier of France.
In the match, the opponents did not “play” with each other for long, they tried to make quick moves, but while Nagy was always able to defend her French opponent’s moves, Lecarpentier could not block the Hungarian athlete’s actions. Nagy first launched an attack on the legs from scramble to take her rival down by two points (2-0), and soon afterwards she was able to get behind again (4-0). At a serious disadvantage, Lecarpentier launched an encouraging attack and seemed to be able to get behind Nagy, who, however, dodged a brilliant counterattack and came out on top (6-0).
Nagy went into the break with a reassuring lead, and in the second round she focused on good defense, and in the middle of the round she launched another successful attack to take an 8-0 lead. The French wrestler did not give up after that, she kept taking the initiative and managed to get behind once (8-2), then she came closer with another point by kicking out, but there was no time left and Nagy won her second European bronze medal of her career with an 8-3 victory.
“I actually came out for this European Championships expecting to wrestle more than two matches as I was out of games due to injuries, but thank God I managed to get four. I felt better and better match by match, but I cannot be as happy as I was at the European Championships in Budapest, because this medal was not the priority. My dream is to qualify for the Olympics,” Nagy told MTI.
Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Magyar Birkózók Szövetsége – Hungarian Wrestling Federation