03. 02. 2012
Juniors - They Came. They Saw. They Conquered!
Košice, Bratislava (February 3, 2012) – The juniors of our Wrestling Club (ZK) Košice 1904 could, in unison, after the Slovak Championships in Bratislava on Saturday, exclaim the famous Caesarian "Veni! Vidi! Vici!". They came, they saw, and they conquered! Out of a possible eight gold medals, they won five in freestyle and also took home the most valuable trophy for a dominant victory in the team competition. Second-place Dunajplavba Bratislava was an incredible 28 points behind them.
Dávid Berdis (up to 55 kg) and Michael Bodnár (up to 84 kg) confirmed their dominance, defending last year's titles. Peter Janica (up to 60 kg), Pavol Kmeč (up to 66 kg), and Jakub Sciranka (up to 74 kg) won their first junior titles. "Our boys wrestled in 40 matches, in which they lost only nine times, and of those, four were in mutual matches, so our boys lost only five matches to opponents from other clubs," emphasized coach Miroslav Jedlička. "I was very satisfied with their performances. I was only sorry that Štofík and Kmeč in the 66-kg category and Janica and Pavlík in the 60-kg category were unlucky in the draw and ended up in the same half of the competition bracket. The two mentioned weight categories had interesting duels between them. This excellent result could have been even better if Dávid Polačko had managed to stick to the tactics I prescribed for him. On the other hand, the very first duel in the 74-kg category between Sciranka and Tóth from Rimavská Sobota could have turned out differently. The performances of our national team members, in particular, showed that they are better prepared in every respect than their opponents, and this fact pleased me," he added.
President of ZK Košice 1904, Ján Tokár Jr., was also overflowing with satisfaction: "This is another super result for our boys and coach Jedlička, and proof that we have a big lead over the rest of Slovakia. Before the championship, the coach and I joked that five first places would be something fantastic and that three or four titles would be enough for us... In the end, we have five at home and we are very satisfied. So a somewhat unrealistic demand on the coach was happily fulfilled."
Our juniors also set the tone in the Greco-Roman style championship competition, despite the fact that they devote minimal time to the classic style of wrestling. In the club rankings, they won ahead of second-place Gladiátor Šamorín with a twelve-point lead, with Janica and Bodnár adding first places from classic style to their freestyle titles. "At the request of the club management, we also competed in Greco-Roman wrestling, and here, even though 'Greco' is already foreign to us, the boys managed to fight beautifully and also, as in freestyle, to win significantly in the team evaluation," added coach Jedlička.