Will “Martti Puumalainen’s incredible judo year” also bring glory to Finland’s head coach?
Judoka Martti Puumalainen the breakthrough season to the absolute top of the world has not gone unnoticed by the International Judo Federation.
For more than three years at the helm of the Finnish national judo team, he has done a brilliant job Rok Draksic36, is nominated for Coaching Achievement of the Year in the International Judo Federation with the theme “Martti Puumalainen’s incredible judo year”.
The most visible of Draksic’s coaching results this year have been fighting in the heavyweight division Martti Puumalainen a historic European championship as well as a sensational Masters victory, which is valued even higher than EC gold in the internal ranking of judo.
In the IJF vote Puumalainen’s surprising victory in the Masters competition is nominated for judo moment of the year, where the Finn overthrew the other top names in the heavyweight world rankings on his way to the top spot.
Puumalainen brought Finland’s first prize medal in judo in 30 years and he is a candidate in his home country Sportsman of the year.
In Finland, judo, which rarely appears in the public eye, is one of the giants of the Summer Olympics in terms of both its geographical distribution and the number of enthusiasts. The puma player’s trick is the hardest in Finnish sports this year.
The Judo Association was the chairman Esa Niemen with the management very alert about the continuation of head coach Rok Draksic and secured the desired judo coach before the Puma European Championship until the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Puumalainen told Urheilu that he thinks that Draksic stayed in Finland despite the attractive offers, because here he gets to carry out “his own” coaching, while in a bigger judo country – the instructions would come from the upper management.
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