Russian Prime Minister to attend Senior European Judo Champs
21st April 2010Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is scheduled to attend the Senior European Judo Championships in Vienna, Austria which run from Thursday April 22nd – Sunday April 25th.
Judo black belt and 6th Dan Putin will be in the capital city to seal a gas deal with the Austrian government on Saturday and will then turn his attention to supporting his compatriots.
The Russian team has spent the past fortnight training at an EJU Olympic Training Camp at the British Judo Performance Institute in Dartford.
The squad is replete with renowned fighters including world ranked no.3 Alim Gadanov (-66kg), world ranked no.2 Kirill Denisov (-90kg) and fourth-ranked Mansur Isaev (-73kg).
Russian head coach Ezio Gamba said: “We want to win European Championship medals; we’ll go there with two teams, one for European and one for individual.”
Meanwhile, EJU Training Camp hosts Britain will field a 10-strong team at the European Championships.
Head coach Patrick Roux said: “I expect to see some consistent performances and much of the same good results from the team as they have recently produced.”
Both teams preparations have been hampered by the volcanic ash cloud which led the Russian’s to travel by train from England to Brussels and then by mini buses to Vienna while Britain elected to make a 16-hour coach trip.