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11th February 2008
British
Bronze from Burton in Paris
Euan Burton has won bronze
at the 2008 Paris Super World Cup, cementing his European number
one ranking in the –81 kg weight category.
Over 600 participants competed
in front of the 17,000 capacity crowd at Paris’s Bercy Stadium
over the weekend in what is regarded as one of the prestigious
tournaments in the world. Super World Cups are particularly important
to those chasing Olympic qualification as they offer increased
ranking points for fighters finishing in a place or medal position.
World medallist Burton
started strong beating Ahmet Sari of Turkey on the ground, converting
an armlock into a hold down for ippon. Next he defeated the very
physical French based Baye Diawara of the Senegal, beating him
by two yuko scores. In a tactical fight he beat Srdjan Mrvaljevic
of Montenegro, but was unlucky to lose to Alain Schmitt of France.
In his first fight in the
repecahge, the 27 year old, who trains at Edinburgh Judo Club,
beat Mehman Azizov of Azebighan in a very one sided fight, which
saw little attacking action from his opponent, and resulted in
the Brit deservedly winning on penalties. In his bronze medal
match against Safouana Attaf of Morocco, Burton applied pressure
throughout clinching a win with a koka score.
Britain’s women finished
with three 5 th places.
Sarah Clark (Edinburgh),
competing in the –63kg weight category on Saturday, comfortably
beat Esther Myreboe of Norway in her first fight, although she
had to be patient with this awkward opponent. Next she faced Young
Ja Kong of Korea, which, with both competitors being left handed,
appeared to be stalemate for most of the contest. Clark eventually
caught the Korean late on for a koka sore.
Clark didn’t have an answer
for the relentless Yoshie Ueno of Japan but in the repechage she
threw Ramila Yusubova of Azerbaijan for ippon in the first minute.
A careful fight against the explosive Johnna Ylinen of Finland
put Clark in the bronze medal fight against Yuhua Xu of China,
but after becoming a waza-ari down in the first minute the Brit
couldn’t find a way back to take a medal.
Britain’s other two 5 th
places came on Sunday.
Michelle Rogers (Scottish
Institute of Sport), in the –78kg weight category, finished her
contest against Geradldine Mentouopou of France with an armlock
within two minues. Like Clark, Rogers couldn’t get past her Chinese
opponent, losing against Xiuli Yang in an extremely close fight.
Next Rogers showed dominance throwing Amy Cotton of Canada and
armlocking Houda Miled of Tunisia.
The bronze medal fight
was a hostile affair for the Brit against old adversary, two-times
World Champion, Celine Lebrun of France. In front of a harsh
home crowd Rogers led until the last 30 second but was caught
out with a foot swept for a Waza-ari score. Rogers should take
comfort in the fact that she still maintains the European number
one spot at his weight category by a significant margin.
Karina Bryant (Camberley),
in the +78kg weight category, beat Eva Bisseni of France with
fantastic ankle sweep for Ippon, and then long time adversary
Sandra Koeppen of Germany in a clever fight that kept the pressure
on and eventually got her opponent penalised. She then completely
overpowered Maryna Prokofyeva of the Ukraine.
In the semi-final Bryant
was unlucky to lose to the current World Champion Wen Tong of
China after a good battle. Bryant fought Kerry Mathe for bronze,
and troubled by a knee injury during the fight, lost on a minor
score.
Overall the Brits put in
strong performances including Faith Pitman at –57kg, who made
a good return after sustaining an injury at the start of the year,
which had kept her off the mat for 3 weeks. Colin Oates also looked
promising in the –66kg weight category beating powerful competitors.
The European Olympic ranking
events continue next week when Craig Fallon (-60kg), James Millar
(-60kg), Colin Oates (-66kg), Iain Feenan (-73kg), Matt Purssey
(-73kg), and Winston Gordon (-90kg) travel to the Vienna World
Cup. Sophie Johnstone (-52kg), Georgina Singleton (-52kg), Faith
Pitman (-57kg), Sally Conway (-70kg), Samantha Lowe (-70kg), and
Sarah Adlington (+78kg) travel to the Budapest World Cup.
Updated Olympic rankings
will available online shortly at www.britishjudo.org.uk
Media Contact:
Emma Griffin
Communications Director
(t) 01509 631692
emmagriffin@britishjudo.org.uk
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