The Dobřany judokas are running at full speed — big national tournaments alternate with regional ones. At the end of April, another round of the Czech Cup series took place in Jablonec nad Nisou, where Matyáš Kobsa fought his way into the bronze medal matches. Unfortunately he lost to his opponent, still taking an excellent 5th place. Besides experience, he also gained precious points toward the national championships. Our young judokas had a Southwest region tournament in Blatná, where five competitors set out on April 27. Karolína Fojtíková took 3rd place among older girls, Lenka Samcová finished 1st in the younger pupils category, and Barbora Kadlečková showed great form at her very first tournament, taking 2nd place. Maxim Kleisner took 3rd place, while Milan Čmolík, despite great effort, did not make it out of the group stage and so missed the medal positions.
A week later, on May 5, the Pardubice Grand Prix for the gingerbread medal took place, and here too we had competitors in the junior category — Filip Hančík and Viktor Pinkava. Filip won his category and then also competed in the older category, where he took 3rd place. It was Viktor's first tournament, so he mainly gathered experience.
The Jiří Straka Memorial took place in Příbram on May 18: Milan Čmolík finished 3rd, and Barbora Kadlečková fought superbly and deservedly took 1st place. Jan Šulc made his tournament debut among older pupils with a 3rd place; Václav Kule, Jan Vesecký, and Karolína Fojtíková did not fight through the tough competition to the medals, but still earned the coach's praise. In the younger juniors, David Chmelík measured himself against experienced fighters and finished 3rd. All the competitors keep training so they can represent our town across the Czech Republic and at international tournaments.
Radek Hančík
