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Gemma Howell achieved
a Hat Trick when she won bronze at the -23 European Championships
in Croatia last weekend.
The Wolverhampton Judo
Club player has now won three medals at three mile stone World
Class events this year – bronzes at the 2008 Junior European Championships
in September, the 2008 Junior World Championships in October and
now the -23 European Championships.
The bronze for the 18-year-old,
in the -57kg weight category, also made history as Howell is the
youngest ever Brit to win a medal at the Championships, since
it was introduced in 2004.
Britain’s second medal
of the weekend came from Sarah Adlington, who won bronze in the
+78kg weight category. It is the second -23 European bronze won
by the 22-year-old, who also medalled in 2007.
In the first round Howell
beat both Krystina Kazanoi of Bulgaria and Vesna Dzukiv of Slovenia
with hold downs for the maximum ippon score.
She was then defeated in
the semi final by Andrea Chitu of Romania, which took her into
the bronze medal match where she beat Michelle Diemmer of the
Netherlands by a yuko score. A feat even more impressive because
the Brit had never beat the Dutch player during any of their previous
meetings.
Afterwards Howell said,
“I am so happy. Two of the girls I beat I have lost to before,
and the one I won in the bronze medal fight I had lost to the
last three times we have met.
“This medal has topped
a great year. I suppose because I had been concentrating on the
build up to the Junior Worlds and Junior Europeans they felt like
they meant a lot more to me, but this one was the icing on the
cake”.
“I am now going to concentrate
on the Junior Trials in January”, she added.
Adlington’s path to
bronze started when she overwhelmed Halina Kavaleva of Belarus
in her pool match scoring two wazari scores to take the contest.
In a closely fought semi-final, Emilie Andeol of France beat the
Brit in golden score.
In the bronze medal match
the Edinburgh Club player showed experience when she clinched
the bronze from Svitlana Yaromka of the Ukraine to reach the medal
rostrum on what was her final outing at an -23 years Championships.
Other British results
at the Championships were a 5th from Gemma Gibbons (-70kg), 7th
from Kimberley Renicks (-52kg), and Kate Walker (-63kg).
Commenting Patrick Roux,
Head Coach said, “This competition was interesting for me as it
was the first time I have been able to observe the players and
coaches. From this starting point I can really see where we are
and where we need to go.
Commenting on the British
medallists he said, “Gemma had a good competition but probably
lost in the semi final due to a mistake caused by inexperience
at this level. But for a player such as her we can clearly identify
what we need to do.
Sarah did not perform
as she could in the semi-final against the French competitor and
I believe she now needs to develop her strategy of kumi-kata (gripping
technique). In fact, we need to be asking this of all our players.
There is a general lack of them fully preparing for the attack.
At that level of competition they cannot rely on direct attacks
but more on technique and tactics.
On the general level
of competition in Croatia he said, “Some of the finals are of
the level we would see at a senior championships”.
Gemma Howell
in action at the Junior World Championships -
Bangkok,
Thailand in October 2008
Photo: Tamas
Zahonyi (IJF-EJU)
Media Enquiries:
Emma Griffin
(t) 07875 368495
(e) emmagriffin@britishjudo.org.uk
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