In the under 63 kg category, Ilariia Tsurkan claimed victory, justifying her role as the top seed of the category and world number one in the rankings.

After a first-round bye, she opened the competition with a quick ippon against a Serbian opponent. In the round of 16, Ilariia had a tougher challenge against an Italian competitor, securing her place in the quarterfinals with a yuko scored just seconds before the end of the bout. In the quarterfinals, the 16-year-old Slovenian defeated a British judoka with another yuko.

In the semifinals, Tsurkan faced fourth seed Bleona Rama of Austria, who had been dominant up to that point. After a tied regular period, the finalist was decided in golden score. Nearly a minute into overtime, Tsurkan capitalized on her opponent’s weak attack and scored the निर्णing point with an uchi-mata.

In the final, Tsurkan faced a familiar opponent, second seed Nina Andrić of Serbia. Once again, there was no score in regular time, but the Slovenian was more active, earning her opponent a penalty. The bout continued in a similar fashion in golden score, where Ilariia maintained the initiative and Andrić received a second penalty. The decisive action came after nearly four minutes of golden score, when Andrić attacked with a low technique. Tsurkan stopped the attack and countered with a body technique, throwing her opponent onto her side to score waza-ari and claim her first Cadet European Cup victory of the year. With this win, Ilariia repeated last year’s success in Poreč.

Following his victory at the Cadet European Cup in Rome, Maks Čebulj won the bronze medal this time in the under 81 kg category. The 15-year-old Slovenian was seeded second and therefore had a first-round bye. He began the competition against a Ukrainian opponent, defeating him with a hold-down. In the second round, he faced a nearly ten-minute battle against Georgia’s Tornike Giunashvili. After almost six minutes of golden score, Čebulj secured his place in the quarterfinals with a successful foot technique.

In the quarterfinals, Čebulj faced Italy’s Cristian Parisi. Although the Slovenian scored the only point of the contest, the Italian advanced to the semifinals after Čebulj received three penalties for false attacks, which resulted in his defeat.

Čebulj continued the competition in the repechage, where he first defeated an Israeli opponent on penalties, and then, after just over half a minute, submitted an Italian competitor with a choke.

In the fight for bronze, Čebulj faced another Georgian, Vazho Gengashvili, and settled the contest after two minutes by forcing his opponent to submit with his second consecutive choke.

Tjaša Logonder also fought for a bronze medal, competing in the under 57 kg category. The 16-year-old Slovenian won her first three matches by ippon but was defeated in the quarterfinals by a British opponent. In the repechage, she overcame competitors from Israel and Ukraine, then faced another British judoka in the bronze medal contest, where she had to concede defeat and finished in fifth place.

Gal Frangež added to the Slovenian team’s overall performance in Poreč, finishing seventh in the over 90 kg category. 

Ninth places were achieved by Nastja Drakšič Koštomaj in the under 44 kg category and Val Berglez Kos in the under 90 kg category.

Jani Černe (under 60 kg) and Johny Krivec (under 66 kg) each recorded three wins in a strong field of competitors but unfortunately finished without a placing.

In Poreč, where 720 athletes from 29 countries competed, one win each was recorded by Pavle Ilić, Roman Hontiuk, Liam Richter, Jan Krištof Huber, Maša Brank Kraševec, Nejc Gregorc and Leon Adrović.