The European No-Gi Championship opened Wednesday in Rome with a familiar result and a larger step forward for Eva Thole.
The Euro 360 Jiu-Jitsu athlete won the adult blue-belt lightweight division at 61.5 kilograms, then stayed in the bracket flow long enough to claim the open class. The two victories gave Thole double gold on October 28 and turned a title defense into something more demanding.
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A Title Defense Becomes a Double-Gold Run
Thole arrived in Italy as the reigning European No-Gi champion at lightweight. Winning the same division again mattered because it showed that the 2025 result was not a one-off. Adding the open class changed the shape of the accomplishment.
A weight-division title rewards an athlete for solving opponents built around a similar physical range. The open class asks a different set of questions. Size becomes less predictable, pace can change from one round to the next, and the technical choices that worked earlier in the day may need to be adjusted immediately.
Thole handled both assignments. The official results placed Jutta Bicherl second in the lightweight division and Iga Helena Leszczynska second in the open class. They also put Euro 360 at the top of the partial adult female academy standings after the opening day.
For an athlete still competing at blue belt, the result is useful evidence of development without requiring the kind of projection that often follows a breakout weekend. Thole repeated at a major championship, then expanded the performance into a second bracket.
The Pattern Was Already Forming
Rome did not create the double-gold pattern. It extended it.
Earlier this year, Thole won both lightweight and open-class gold at the London Spring International Open No-Gi. That event carried a smaller stage than the European Championship, but it offered an early look at the same competitive rhythm: win the assigned division, reset, and keep going against a wider range of opponents.
The European result gives that pattern more weight. Major championships bring deeper fields, longer days and more pressure around every bracket. Repeating the formula there is a stronger test than collecting another result at an International Open.
It also gives Thole a clear place in the wider event story. The European No-Gi Championship continues through November 1, with higher belt levels and many of the tournament's most established names still to compete. Opening day belonged to the blue belts, and Thole made the most complete statement in the women's field.
World No-Gi Is Already Next
There is little time for the result to settle.
Thole is already listed for the World No-Gi Championship, scheduled for December 10 through 12 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. She is registered in the adult female blue-belt lightweight division, the same weight class she just defended in Rome.
Registration lists can change before an event, but the current entry gives this European run an immediate next chapter. World No-Gi will bring a different field and another major test. It will also ask whether the combination of repeatability and open-class adaptability can travel beyond Europe.
For now, Thole leaves the opening day in Rome with two gold medals, a defended title and a result that makes her worth remembering before December arrives.