Mijač silver, Saljiu and Danilović bronze

Montenegrin junior senior Vladimir Mijač won a silver medal in kata, while cadets Emre Saljiu and Andrija Danilović won bronze in the fights of the first competition day of the European Championship for cadets, juniors and junior seniors in Budapest.

In the final match, the younger senior from Bara was defeated by Frenchman Frank Ngoan, who won 24,44 points in the final, and Mijač won 23,78 points.

It is Mijach's second medal in major competitions in his career, after he won bronze as a cadet in 2015 at the World Championships in Jakarta.

"The European medal was my goal in my career so far. The gold medal remains regrettable, but there is no reason to be dissatisfied. I am satisfied with how I did the tournament and that I reached the finals in such a strong competition. "Thank you to coach Jugoslav Bukilić, the coaches at my club, especially Almir Cecunjanin, who contributed to my form, which is necessary to achieve such a result," said Mijač.

He congratulated his colleagues from the national team on winning medals and wished success to his colleagues, who will perform in the next two days.

In the match for the bronze medal in the category up to 52 kilograms, Saljiu defeated the Belgian Jasin Gazuani 10:0. Cadet Omladinca at the start of the competition lost to the German Muhamed Ozdemir 1:0, who, by qualifying for the final, dragged him into the rematch. On the way to the bronze medal, he defeated the Latvian Denis Kalvans 3:0, the Russian Gadzhi Gadzhiev 1:0, Ahmed El Amin Helal from France 2:1 and convincingly in the match for the podium of the Belgian Gazuani.

"I am satisfied with the success. It is a reward for the enormous effort, work and sacrifice, for the great sweat shed during training, all so that I can meet the EP as ready as possible. I hope that I am at the beginning of a brilliant career and that, not only as a cadet, I will win big medals", said Saljiu.

His club mate from Omladinc, Danilović, won the bronze medal in the category up to 63 kilograms by defeating Kadir Khan Bekler from Turkey 4:1.

"I am satisfied with the result and the medal. It's my first big medal, I hope one day I'll be the European senior champion. I'm not satisfied with how I did the first match, it could have been much better. I got a new chance and I used it in the right way," Danilović stressed.

He started the tournament with a 2:0 defeat against the Russian Lev Muhamedov, who won the final and gave the Montenegrin karateka another chance. At the start of the rematch, Danilović defeated the Croatian Anton Host 4:0, while in the second round he won against the Pole Michal Floržak 6:1 and won the medal match.

Saljiu and Danilović made their debut at the European Championship in the cadet competition.

Less lucky in the repechage were Jovan Fatić up to 57 and Jovana Stojanović in the category over 54 kilograms. Fatić was free in the first round, while in the second he lost to the Azerbaijani Farid Savadov 1:0, who, by qualifying for the final, dragged him into the repechage, where he eliminated Mihajlo Marković from Serbia at the start. He was separated from the fight for a medal by a 1:0 loss to the Ukrainian Erik Rahozenko.

Stojanović rested in the first round, while in the second she lost to the Romanian Kristina Marija Čoman 5:0. In the continuation of the tournament, the Romanian won the final and enabled the member of the Brotherhood to rematch, in which she lost to the Swede Lara Zarei 1:0 at the start.

Lazar Potpara won the first two rounds in the category over 70 kilograms against the Irishman Lee Shiridan 2:0 and John Kabashi from Switzerland 1:0, while in the third he lost to the Russian Konstantin Kokovurov 4:0.

The Russian karateka failed to reach the finals, leaving Potpara without a fight for a medal. Anđela Ivanović (up to 47), who beat Klaris Moen from Luxembourg 5:3 in the first round, was also left without a repeaage. In the second, she lost to the Belarusian Juliana Markava 10:4. The Belarusian lost in the next round, thus closing the door to the rematch for the member of Gorštak from Kolasin.

In the category up to 70 kilograms, Lazar Jovović was free in the first round of the category, while in the second round he lost to the Lithuanian Gvidas Disle 1:0.

Junior senior Jovana Marić also had a successful performance in the katas, who was stopped in the second round. Marić won the second round with the third result (23,18), in which she finished fifth in the group competition.

Cadet Vaslije Perović also passed the first round with 21,36 points, fourth in the group. In the second round, with 21.44 points, he was last, eighth.

Cadet Ivana Vidojević (sixth in the group, 19,26 points) and juniors Hana Šendelj (eighth in the group - 20,14) and Kenan Nikočević (sixth in the group - 21,92) completed their performance at the championship in the first round.

The kata selector, Jugoslav Bukilić, said that the Montenegrin kata was an exceptional success.

"For the first time, we won a medal in the katas in the junior senior competition. The medal is not a surprise, because we have a quality selection. Mijač showed that he has experience and his continuous work had to come to the fore. I'm sorry that Jovana Marić also didn't achieve a better result, but she did her best and showed quality matches", said Bukilić.

Tomorrow, on the second competition day, kata teams and juniors will compete in battles. Montenegrin karate will be represented by male and female cadet-junior kata teams consisting of Dušan Petrović, Blažo Micevski and Vasilije Perović, that is, Maša Đukanović, Džena Canović and Hana Šendelj.

On the mat will also be juniors in fights Nemanja Mikulić (up to 61 kg), Janko Dževerdanović (up to 68), Andrija Fatić (up to 76) and Nemanja Jovović (over 76), Milica Jeknić (up to 53), Sara Raković (up to 59) and Milena Jovanović (over 59).

The championship in Budapest brought together 1155 competitors from 52 countries.