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The British judo team returned
home from the first International Judo Federation (IJF) Grand
Slam event with two 5th places.
The two day tournament,
held in Paris, France, always draws the top judo names and one
of the biggest judo crowds worldwide.
Britain took the opportunity
to field some of their younger and more inexperienced judokas
to give them some valuable fighting time in one of the most intimidating
arenas of the lot.
In this respect it proved
an interesting exercise, with some fighters clearly out of their
depth and others relishing the chance.
The biggest success
was Gemma Howell (Wolverhampton Judo Club), who medalled in the
Junior European Championships and Junior World Championships last
year. At just 18, Howell proved in Paris she can live with the
best of the seniors too.
She overcame her first
two opponents with ease in the -57kgs, before losing narrowly
in the quarter-finals to Barbara Harel.
At -70kgs Sally Conway
(Edinburgh Judo Club) also looked good, winning her first contest
by Ippon, the maximum score. But despite dominating her quarter-final
fight she threw it away at the end when France's Marie Pasquet
countered her attack with three seconds to go.
The other British performances
were less convincing, with Sophie Johnstone (-52kgs), Sarah Adlington
(+78kgs), Colin Oates (-66kgs), Alex Farbon (-73kgs), Jonathan
Purssey (-90kgs) and Andrew Burns (-100kgs) all bowing out in
the first round.
James Millar (-60kgs),
Jan Gosiewski (-73kgs) and Lindsay Purves, (-78kgs) came unstuck
in their second contests, having won their first one.
Britain's two Beijing Olympic
competitors fighting in Paris were Euan Burton (-81kgs) and Peter
Cousins (-100kgs). They both managed to win their first fights
by Yuko, before losing to Belarussian opponents in the second
round.
Britain again suffered
under new International Judo Federation rules, which has completely
removed the repechage from Grand Slam tournaments (Paris, Moscow,
Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo). Six Brits who, under a repechage
system, would have normally had the chance to fight for the bronze
medal, left the competition in the pool round - James Millar (-60kg),
Andy Burns (-100kg), Peter Cousins (-90kg), Sophie Johnstone (-52kg),
Lindsay Purves (-78kg), Sarah Adlington (+78kg).
Commenting afterwards on
behalf of the Performance Directorate Karen Roberts, Performance
Operations Manager, said, “For the inexperienced majority in the
team the Paris Grand Slam has provided a valuable insight into
where they need to be to compete at this level.
“We are not seeing a step
change in the results we are achieving but we will not see this
until our centralised training system – which is about to be launched
– is fully operational and making a difference. I believe only
then we will be able to deliver the results we need.”
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