Ivan Nikolchev is fifth at the European Judo Cup in Rome

Ivan Nikolchev came fifth at the European Judo Cup for Cadets in Rome.

In the 73 kg category, the Bulgarian lost in the first round to the Spaniard Gonzalo Granda. But in the repechages he achieved 4 victories to reach the small final, where he lost to the Czech Tomas Otevrel.

In the repechages Nikolchev achieved success over the Italian Denis del Monte, the Montenegrin Matija Radovic, over Giacomo Meloni (Italy), as well as over Luca Abashidze (Great Britain).

Before that, Sofia Mavrova (44) became first, and Mahmud Jaafar (60) is fifth.

And Georgi Gramatikov lost to the Russian Egor Sukhoparov, who then won bronze at the Grand Slam in Paris.