Six athletes from the Judo Kodokan Cesena will hunt for the title of Italian champions. Last Sunday in Castelnovo di Sotto in the province of Reggio Emilia, the Ado-Uisp regional judo championships were held, intended to designate the athletes who will be part of the Emilia Romagna representative team at the next national championship. Around 250 athletes from various sports clubs were present at the event: after checking the weight of the athletes, the competitions began, taking place on two tatamis under the guidance of national and international referees. The athletes representing the Kodokan were Geremia Romagnoli, Samuele Romagnoli, Riccardo Santoro, Marco Brandolini, Matteo Ferrari and Cristina Rossi.
The first to be called up was the debutant A Geremia Romagnoli. The player from Cesena fought the first two matches dominating his opponents; in the final, however, he had to surrender to an ippon suffered by his opponent. Immediately afterwards it was the turn of his brother Samuele Romagnoli, in the cadet category: after some matches won, he had to give way to his opponent in the final and finished second. It was then the turn of Marco Brandolini who, starting from a disadvantaged situation since he has long been placed in a weight category higher than him, still managed to earn a third place. A little later Riccardo Santoro, junior category, took to the field. We immediately saw in the athlete the desire to dominate and he did so throughout all the matches, maintaining supremacy over his opponents until the final match. The spectacular ippon by the athlete from Cesena crowned him Regional champion in his category. Same fate for the athlete Matteo Ferrari.
Cristina Rossi instead had to deal with bad luck: during the final match, in fact, she suffered a serious knee injury and had to withdraw. She still managed to get a bronze medal. All Romagna athletes are thus qualified for the Italian Championship in Scandicci.
