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Earning
their place at the top, the GB team bagged four gold, one silver
and four bronze medals at the 2009 GB World Cup in Birmingham.
France
and Russia followed close behind in second and third place out
of a total of 25 countries that competed over the two days of
competition on the 19th and 20th September.
European
silver medallist Sarah Clark (-63kg) and Kimberley Renicks (-48kg)
got the GB team’s campaign off to an excellent start as they both
won gold medals in their respective weight categories on day one.
Also
medalling in the lighter weight contests on day one was James
Millar (-60kg), Sophie Johnstone (-52kg) and Alex Farbon (-73kg),
who all won bronze.
Day
two saw an all British final in the men’s -81kg category between
Beijing Olympian Euan Burton and team-mate Tom Reed. The two judoka
were evenly matched both with a score each from penalties, but
Burton won the fight by Ippon, earning him the gold and Reed the
silver medal.
2008 GB World Cup gold
medallist Sarah Adlington returned to defend her title in the
+78kg weight category. Adlington progressed to the final to face
Lucia Tangorre (Italy) and won the fight, earning her the title
for the second year running.
Taking the final bronze
medal was Sian Wilson (-78kg) who was called into action at the
last minute for the repechage due to a revised decision that led
to Annika Heise (Germany) being disqualified.
Achieving 5th place at
the competition was Peter Cousins (-100kg), Colin Oates (-66kg),
Chris Sherrington (+100kg) and finishing 7th place was Adam Bick
(-81kg), Mathew Clempner (+100kg), Joe Delahay (+100kg), Theo
Spalding-McIntosh (-100kg) and Megan Fletcher (-70kg).
Commenting
on the weekend, Head Coach Patrick Roux said, “The last 6 months
have been a period of great change with our focus being around
the structure and plan for the Olympic cycle. It has been extremely
positive to see the players achieving at
this competition and indicates we have a good platform to build
from.
“We
were able to use the GB World cup as an enhanced training opportunity.
The players were encouraged by the coaches to strive to throw
for Ippon, which means taking risks and not limiting themselves.
As a result we saw some good technical improvements from our players
- particularly the medallists.
Another target was for the players to take the responsibility
of the fight- this is why you will have seen some of our elite
players with no mat side coach, allowing the player to focus on
the fight and make their own decisions. We will collect feedback
from the players to see how this felt. Both of these opportunities
were possible because we were at a home event".
“Another
important factor was the continued development in the dynamics
of our coaching team to produce a collective support to all of
our players, therefore maximising performance”.
British Judo’s CEO,
Scott McCarthy said, “The weekend (GB World Cup) provided an excellent
platform for us to give a large number of fighters some experience
of a high quality event with a high quality field of contestants.
With 25 countries in attendance we had a great mix of all world
judo styles on display and our young fighters will benefit from
this experience.
“As you might expect
during this developmental stage of the programme, we had some
fantastic individual performances and also some disappointments
– but I am confident that both the Performance staff and the players
will learn and benefit from it. The GB team is now moving
straight into an international camp in Dartford where we will
host four of the leading delegations and continue the journey”,
he further said.
The home crowd support
was fantastic for both the GB Team and International players.
A total of 21 BJA clubs from across the country that booked tickets
through British Judo’s club ticket offer enjoyed the atmosphere
and free goody bags.
Jane Armstrong, Club Secretary
from Headcorn Judo Club said, “We had a fantastic time and all
our members thoroughly enjoyed the event. The BJA gave us
wonderful seats and the goody bags went down very well. We
were also given a signed suit from the GB Team which was a fantastic
thing for the club to treasure and are now investigating getting
it framed.
“It was a big day for our
little club; our members got the chance to see World Class judo
for the very first time. On Monday morning's junior session the
children and parents were buzzing with excitement about it.
If anything is going to motivate and inspire them, this should”.
As well as the excellent
action on the mat, fans of the Japanese judo star Kosei Inoue
queued up to get posters signed and have photos taken with their
idol on the concourse.
Media Contact:
Nicola Turner
British Judo Association
(t) 01509 631695
nicolaturner@britishjudo.org.uk
Burton
and Reed in the -81kg final
©
David Finch
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