Kosovo at the 2019 European Games

Kosovo at the 2019 European Games
IOC code	KOS
NOC	Olympic Committee of Kosovo
Website	www.noc-kosovo.org
in Minsk, Belarus 21–30 June
Competitors	12 in 5 sports
Flag bearer	Donjeta Sadiku
Medals Ranked 34th	Gold 1 Silver 1 Bronze 1 Total 3
European Games appearances (overview)
2015 2019 2023 2027

Kosovo participated at the 2019 European Games in Minsk, Belarus, held between 21 and 30 June 2019. The country's participation in Minsk marked its second appearance at the European Games since its debut in the inaugural 2015 European Games.

The Kosovo team consisted of 12 athletes competing across five sports. Boxer Donjeta Sadiku was the country's flag-bearer during the opening ceremony. The country was ranked 34th in the overall medal table with three medals including a gold, a silver and a bronze.

Background

The Olympic Committee of Kosovo was formed in 1992 and officially established in 2003. It was officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee on 9 December 2014. ^[1] The nation made its European Games debut at the first 2015 European Games held in Baku, Azerbaijan. ^{[2] [3]} This edition of the Games marked the nation's second appearance at the European Games. ^{[2] [4]}

The 2019 European Games were held in Minsk, Belarus between 21 and 30 June 2019. ^{[4] [5]} About 3,500 athletes from 50 countries competed in 200 medal events across 15 sports in the Games. ^[6] Boxer Donjeta Sadiku was the country's flag-bearer during the opening ceremony. ^[7] Kosovo won a bronze medal in the 2015 Games. ^[8]

Medalists

Kosovo won three medals, one of each colour, all in the sport of Judo. ^{[9] [10]}

Medalists ^[11]

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
Gold	Majlinda Kelmendi	Judo	Women's -52kg	22 June
Silver	Nora Gjakova	Judo	Women's -57kg	22 June
Bronze	Loriana Kuka	Judo	Women's -78kg	24 June

Competitors

Kosovo was represented by 12 athletes in five sports in the competition. ^[12]

Sport	Men	Women	Total
Archery	0	1	1
Boxing	3	1	4
Judo	1	4	5
Karate	1	0	1
Table tennis	1	0	1
Total	6	6	12

Archery

Main article: Archery at the 2019 European Games

Kosovo received a universality place and sent a lone athlete Ardita Zejnullahu for the women's individual event in recurve archery. ^{[13] [14]} The women's individual competition was held from 21 to 26 June 2019 at the Olympic Sports Complex in Minsk. ^[15] Zejnullahu was seeded 48th after finishing with 500 points from a possible 600 in the ranking round. ^[16] In the round of 64, he lost to Bryony Pitman of Great Britain and bowed out of the competition. ^[17]

Women

Athlete	Event	Ranking round		Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final / BM
		Score	Seed	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Ardita Zejnullahu	Individual recurve	500	48	Pitman  (GBR)	Did not advance					50

Boxing

Main article: Boxing at the 2019 European Games

The European Boxing Confederation allowed each National Olympic Committee (NOC) to nominate one entry per weight category for the men's event. ^[18] Kosovo sent four athletes including one woman for the boxing event. ^[19]

Boxing matches were contested between 21 and 30 June 2019 at the Uruchie Sports Palace. ^{[20] [21]} In the 64 kg event, Shpetim Bajoku lost to Ahmad Shtiwi of Israel in the first round. In the 69 kg event, Patriot Berhami won his first two rounds before he lost to Lorenzo Sotomayor of Azerbaijan in the quarterfinals. Ardit Delijaj and Donjeta Sadiku lost their first round bouts in the men's 81 kg and women's 60 kg categories respectively. ^[19]

Men

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Shpetim Bajoku	64 kg	—	Shtiwi  (ISR) L 1–4	Did not advance
Patriot Behrami	69 kg	Bye	Zeljko  (CRO) W 4–0	Mangiacapre  (ITA) W 3–2	Sotomayor  (AZE) L 0-5	Did not advance
Ardit Delijaj	81 kg	—	Nersisyan  (ARM) RSC Injury	Did not advance

Women

Athlete	Event	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Donjeta Sadiku	60 kg	Frostholm  (DEN) L 0–5	Did not advance

Judo

Majlinda Kelmendi won the country's first gold medal at the European Games

Main article: Judo at the 2019 European Games

Kosovo qualified five judokas for the European Games, which were held at the Čyžoŭka-Arena. ^[22] In the men's 73 kg, Akil Gjakova won the first round before losing to Georgios Azoidis of Greece in the second round. ^{[11] [23]} In the women's events, Majlinda Kelmendi won the gold medal in the 52 kg event after she beat Natalia Kuziutina of Russia in the finals. ^{[11] [24]} While in the 57 kg category, Nora Gjakova settled for a silver medal after she lost to Daria Mezhetskaia of Russia in the finals. ^{[11] [25]} In the 78 kg weight class, Loriana Kuka lost to Guusje Steenhuis of Netherlands in the semi-finals before winning two matches in the repechage rounds to win the bronze medal. ^{[11] [26]}

Men

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Repechage	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Akil Gjakova	−73 kg	Bye	Shoka  (BLR) W 10s1-0h	Azoidis  (GRE) L 0-11	Did not advance

Women

Athlete	Event	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Repechage	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Distria Krasniqi	−48 kg	Bye	Martínez  (ESP) w/o	Did not advance
Majlinda Kelmendi	−52 kg	Bye	Kocher  (SUI) W 10s1–0s	Pienkowska  (POL) W 10–0s2	Buchard  (FRA) W 0s2-1	Bye	Kuziutina  (RUS) W 1s1-0s2
Nora Gjakova	−57 kg	Bye	Gneto  (FRA) W 1-0s1	Strake  (GER) W 10–0	Monteiro  (POR) W 10–0h	Bye	Mezhetskaia  (RUS) L 0s1-1s1
Loriana Kuka	−78 kg	Bye	Yeats-Brown  (GBR) W 1-0s2	Steenhuis  (NED) L 0-11	Did not advance	Wagner  (GER) W 1 - 0s2	Malzahn  (GER) W 10s1 - 1s1

Karate

Main article: Karate at the 2019 European Games

The Karate competition was held on 29 June 2019 at the Čyžoŭka-Arena. ^[27] Alvin Karaqi was the lone participant in the men's Kumite -84kg competition. He won a single game, and lost two in the group stages to bow out of the competition. ^[28]

Men

Athlete	Event	Group stage			Semifinal	Final / BM
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Alvin Karaqi	Men's Kumite -84kg	Kvesić  (CRO) L 0–5	Chobotar  (UKR) L 3–4	Malović  (MNE) W 1–0	Did not advance

Table tennis

Main article: Table tennis at the 2019 European Games

Table Tennis took place from 22 to 29 June 2019 at Tennis Olympic Centre. ^[29] Kosovo was allocated a universality place in the men's singles event. ^[30] Fatih Karabaxhk lost his first round match to exit the competition. ^[31]

Men

Athlete	Event	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Fatih Karabaxhak	Men's singles	Oostwouder  (NED) L 0–4	Did not advance

See also

• Sports portal

• Sport in Kosovo

References

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2. "Medals Overall". Baku 2015. Archived from the original on 10 September 2019. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
3. "European Games: First edition opens in Azerbaijan". BBC News . 13 June 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
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6. "2019 European Games". Republic of Belarus . Retrieved 1 April 2025.
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22. "Schedule and Results, Judo". Minsk 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
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27. "Karate – Daily Schedule – 29 June 2019" (PDF). MEGOC. 29 June 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
28. "Karate, results" (PDF). MECOG. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2019.
29. "Table Tennis summary". MEGOC. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
30. "NOCs Confirmed Using of Allocated Quota Places including Universality Places for the MINSK 2019 European Games" (PDF). ETTU . Retrieved 27 April 2019.
31. "Table Tennis Results" (PDF). MEGOC. Retrieved 1 June 2024.