Van Tichelt celebrates precious Euro bronze on his own

Seven years after his European title in 2008 Dirk van Tichelt finally won a medal again. At this championship that started with gold for his compatriot Van Snick, also Van Tichelt took bronze in the autumn of his judo career.

For bronze he defeated one of his major rivals Dex Elmont. Who had now beat for the third time in a row, but previous match it was Elmont to win.

Van Tichelt "I have known him a long time. He made one mistake and I took advantage.

“Today was a good result, because seven years ago I was European champion but since then I haven't won a medal. Seven years was a long wait. This category is a big lottery.  There were eight good athletes from the ranking list in this contest, all capable of winning. Every year there's a new champion, another medallist."

Just like Elmont also Van Tichelt was annoyed by the the change of dates for the European championship, which was moved from Glasgow in April to Baku in June, not only for the buildup of the season.

"My family and friends always come to support me at the European championship, and this year 20 of them booked up for Glasgow. But the championships were moved to here and they couldn't make the arrangements so they didn't come. I'm here on my own, but I can make friends easily, and I'm looking forward to going to the bar for a beer to celebrate. My family is important, my elder brother was a judoka and I didn't want him beating me up all the time, so I did it too. So did my sisters - the whole family likes judo."

Finally Van Tichelt can smile again. The last time that he won a gold medal was in Moscow in 2013, but this bronze medal is precious. This year he started well with a bronze medal in Sofia and two weeks ago in Budapest he added another bronze medal at Grand Prix level.

Van Tichelt won two bronze medals in his career at World Championships, in 2009 and 2013. In Astana this year he is hoping for another medal.