There were some incredible sports successes for Serbian judo in 2021. The National Union has received an extremely important award from the European judo Union. Andrea Stojadinov was named the most successful competitor in Europe, in the Junior division.
In accordance with the epidemiologic situation, and respecting the measures from the Crisis Centre and the Government of Serbia for prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic, Andrea, the most successful European judoka in Junior division celebrated her award with her closest family, at the headquarters of Millennium Team in Belgrade, whose general manager is Stojan Vujko, and which has been a sponsor of the Red Star team for more than a decade.
Stojan Vujko, president of Board of Directors of Red Star Judo club, awarded the accolade to the young winner from the Serbian National team, and the rising star of the team from Ljutice Bogdana Street.
“This is an amazing event for Serbian judo. Our Andrea Stojadinov received the prestigious award from the European Judo Union for the best in Junior division in 2020. With her results in 2020 and in 2021, Andrea clearly showed that with hard work and dedication success is bound to happen. Thank you to Andrea, her family that has always supported her, her brother who sacrificed his career and constantly trained with her, as well as to the entire Red Star Judo team“, said Stojan Vujko, president of the Board of Directors of the Red Star Judo team.
As a laureate of the award from the European Judo Union for the best competitor in the Junior division for 2020, Andrea Stojadinov has become a part of international sports history.
“This award, for many years worth of hard work deserves to be celebrated with a much bigger event, and a lot more people. The situation with the pandemic has forced us to award the award to Andrea, surrounded by her closest family. This award is confirmation that Red Star Judo club is at the top of European Judo. Andrea, thank you for being a part of our family“, concluded Stojan Vujko.
The name Andrea Stojadinov will be noted down in history of Serbian sport, because she is the first competitor from our country that received this important recognition from the European Judo Union.
In the previous year, Andrea Stojadinov has won three medals at European championships in a month. Stojadinov won a gold medal at the beginning of November 2020 at the European Junior Judo Championship in Poreč, and after five days, she also won a bronze medal at the European Championship for Younger Seniors (Poreč). For the final win, she won the European Championship for Seniors in Prague, at the end of November 2020. These exact results nominated our Andrea for the special recognition from the Serbian Olympic Committee for 2020, which she ended up receiving.
Apart from European medals, Andrea has also won a bronze medal at the Grand Slam in Budapest in 2020. The young rising star of Red Star made sure to record excellent result in 2021 as well by winning bronze medals in Tashkent and Tel Aviv.
“I don’t think people realize how important this recognition is. This is proof of how much we sacrificed. I know how hard last year was when corona hit, but to come out strong from all that means a lot. I want to thank the family, my brother, the coaches Nemanja Nikolić and Andrija Đurišić, as well as coach Goran Popović. We never stopped training, we made a difference, and it shows. I would like to thank the Board for being there for me the entire time, the presidents Stojan Vujko and Ivan Bošnjak. A big thank you to Ivan Todorov, the president of the Serbian Judo Union, who was constantly in contact with me, who followed everything i did, and with whom i always spoke to before and after competitions. People only see the end results, a fight that lasts a few minutes, but they don’t see an entire team behind me that is responsible for these results as much as I am“, stated the receiver of the recognition for the best European Judoka, Andrea Stojadinov.
