Russian beauties and Tatar strong men on the European tatami: Vladimir Putin opened the 2016 European Judo Championships at Tatneft Arena

On 22 April, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin officially opened the European Judo Championships in Kazan. A colourful ceremony took place at Tatneft Arena.

This competition is one of the qualifying events of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. About 400 athletes from 46 countries participated in the European Championships. There were 14 individual medal sets (seven for men and seven for women) and two medal sets for team competitions. The national teams of Russia, France, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine were the largest, each of them had 18 athletes. The teams from Spain and Germany had 17 participants, Israel fielded 16 people, and the Netherlands and the Great Britain were represented by 14 athletes.