Hondiu overcame Bulgaria’s Kalina Stefanova, with the pair joined on the podium by bronze medallists Olesia Savchuk of Ukraine and Laure Fournier of France, while Oshlobanu got the better of Lithuania’s Radvilas Matukas, as Russia’s Vladimir Prikazchikov and Serbia’s Vukasin Kovacevic took the bronze medals.

"I am very happy and would like to see all the girls from my team go my way," said Hondiu, whose gold medal was her country's first in the history of the European Championships. 

"This Championship was a test for me, but the main start of the year will be the European Games in Baku [next month]."

The successes of Romania and Moldova increased the final number of gold-medal winning nations to eight, but by far and away the most prolific were Russia, who today added a further five to the six they had already won across the first two days of action.

Ilya Khlybov resumed Russia’s winning trail, beating Bulgaria’s Boris Borisov in the men’s 62kg, which saw Georgia’s Shmagi Lagazauri and Belarus’ Ivan Aniskevich share the third step of the podium.

Anatoliy Stishak comfortably out-fought Ukraine’s Sergii Chornyi in the combat men’s 52kg to bring up Russia’s second gold medal of the day, with Bulgaria’s Yordan Nguen and Lithuania’s Gintapas Katkus finishing third.

This was followed by victory for Magomedrasul Kuasbulaev in the combat men's 68kg at the expense of Lithuanian silver medallist Sergej Grecicho and bronze medallists Vachik Vardanyan of Armenia and Oleksii Zaiets of Ukraine.

Rustem Arslanov added a fourth in the men’s over 100kg, coming from behind to beat Bulgaria’s Ivan Iliev as Belarus’ Yury Rybak and Ukraine’s Razmik Tonoyan took the bronze medals.

And the quintet was complete after Magomed Magomedov made short work of home favourite Vjekoslav Jajcinivic in the combat men’s 90kg, which saw the bronze medals go to Bulgaria’s Kamen Georgiev and Ukraine’s Valentin Grekov.

Belarus upped their overall gold medal tally to five as Yelizaveta Maiseyenka got one over Russia’s Svetlana Fedoseenko in the women’s over 80kg, and they could have had another had Volha Namazava not suffered defeat at the hands of Ukraine’s Tetyana Savenko in the women’s 68kg.

The women’s over 80kg bronze medals went to Georgia’s Irine Leonidze and France’s Elena Chirac, while in the women’s 68kg, Russia’s Ekaterina Onoprienko and Serbia’s Ivana Jandric claimed third-place honours.

Russia totalled seven silver medals and two bronzes, to add to their 11 golds, and were followed in the overall standings by Belarus with five golds, two silvers and six bronzes, and Ukraine with four golds, five silvers and 10 bronzes.

Ukraine headed the women’s medal standings, ahead of Russia and then Belarus, while in the men’s, Russia beat Georgia to top spot with Belarus in third.

Russia also prevailed in the combat men’s medal stakes, holding off the challenge of runners-up Ukraine and third-placed Bulgaria.

The event was signed off with a brief Closing Ceremony as Zeljko Banic, President of the Croatian Sambo Federation, passed the European Championship hosting-rights flag to Ksenia Bespalova, a representative of the Kazan 2016 Organising Committee.


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