Larisa Cerić wins bronze at Grand Slam tournament in Baku

(Patria) - Bosnia's best judoka Larisa Cerić won a bronze medal at the Grand Slam in Baku in the +78 kg category.

After recently justifying her role as the top favorite at the European Judo Open Sarajevo 2023, Cerić's result in Baku confirmed that she is in excellent form.

At the prestigious competition, the popular Lara also earned an additional 500 points for the Olympic quota, thus strengthening her position among the travelers for the Olympic Games to be held in Paris in 2024.

- I am happy because I managed to win bronze at the Grand Slam tournament and to earn new 500 points on the Olympic ranking list.

The day was very tough and exhausting, I had five fights, in the first round I fought against a representative of Austria, after that against a representative of Serbia, then in the quarterfinals I was defeated by a representative of Japan, and finally in the repechage I defeated a representative of Italy - said Cerić.

In the fight for third place, Cerić was better than Elis Startseva, who competed in Baku as an "individual neutral athlete", originally a Russian-born.

- Four wins and one loss, I can say I am satisfied, the form is slowly rising, last week's result I achieved in Sarajevo gave me new wind at my back to achieve good results, and here I hope the season of good results has opened.

Until the end of the year, I still have the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam and the European Senior Championships ahead of me - Larisa Cerić pointed out at the end.

In addition to Larisa Cerić, sisters Aleksandra and Anđela Samardžić and Toni Miletić competed in Baku, and all recorded one win each, thus earning 160 points each.

Along with our judokas in Baku, Arijana Jaha, the general secretary of the Judo Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, served as a coach.