Malović lost to the European champion in the fight for a medal

Montenegrin karate player Nikola Malović finished fifth in the Premier League tournament in Paris.

The member of Onogošt from Nikšić was defeated today in the match for the third place and the bronze medal by the official champion of Europe, Ugur Aktaš from Turkey 2:0.

Malović, a bronze medalist from last year's European Championship, achieved the best result in the Premier League tournaments by winning fifth place.

"I am satisfied that I played six good matches against top fighters. It remains to analyze the performance and work on mistakes, so that the next performances will be even better," said Malović.

Aktaš, who is a two-time European champion, won silver at the Series A tournament in Chile in mid-January.

Last season, he won the Premier League in Dubai, Shanghai and Madrid and the Serie A tournaments in Montreal and Santiago.

Yesterday, in the first round, Malović defeated Ruben Heno from Colombia 6:5, in the second round he eliminated the French Sali Dijop 2:0, while in the third he lost to the Japanese Rijatar Araga 1:0.

The Japanese fighter qualified for the finals, which pushed Malović into the repechage.

In the repechage, he eliminated Macedonian Gligor Petkov 10:2 and Mikel Martin from Italy 1:0 and won the medal match.

Of the other Montenegrin competitors, Marina Raković was stopped in the repechage yesterday, Biserka Radulović was stopped in the katas in the third round the day before, while Mario Hodžić was eliminated in the fights at the start of the competition in the category up to 67 kilograms.