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Tayside’s Aiden Moffat
will now be added to the World Cadets Championship team next month
after meeting the performance criteria of a fifth-place finish
at the European Youth Olympics Festival in Turkey.
The -60kg judoka started
his campaign by defeating Estonia’s Markus Somp before conquering
the Czech Republic’s David Hozak.
Moffat edged Azerbaijan’s
Rashad Rufullayev in the quarter-final but narrowly lost out to
Slovenia’s Adrian Gomboc in the semi-final.
The Scot then entered the
repechage and lost the bronze medal contest to Georgian Tamazi
Kirakozashvill.
European Cadets Championship
silver medallist Lucy Renshall (St Helens) left the Judo competition
empty-handed despite a strong performance in the -52kg class at
the Of ports Hall in Trabzon, Turkey, on Wednesday.
The 15-year-old received
a bye into the second round, but came up against strong Turkish
Ozge Ozkan in the second round who had a large local crowd behind
her.
Renshall went behind to
an early waza-ari, and although she challenged her opponent well
she could not claw her way back and went into the repechage to
fight for bronze.
She secured victory against
Dutch opponent Lonneke Zuidgeest when she held her down in golden
score period to secure ippon. But in the next fight she lost on
waza-ari to Slovenia’s Barbara Bizilj.
"I’m disappointed
and upset,” she said afterwards. “I came here to win a medal,
like I guess everyone does. I thought I could’ve won the first
fight against the Turkish girl, but after she scored early I couldn’t
get back.
"This is a big event
and I had hoped to take something out of it ahead of the World
Championships next month. But it’s been a great experience; I’ve
met new people and fought new opponents which can only make me
a better athlete.”
Glasgow’s Colin MacDonald
put in a strong performance in the -66kg class.
The 15-year-old fought
his way through to the quarter finals with some strong and intelligent
fighting.
After a tough first round
clash against Switzerland’s Vincent Genito which he won with an
ippon with 39 seconds left, he despatched of his second round
opponent in just 16 seconds, throwing Poland’s Tomasz Maciej Dlugosz
on his back for ippon.
He faced Azerbaijan’s Huseyn
Rahimli, who scored waza-ari after two minutes which left MacDonald
rattled, and ippon followed shortly after.
Moving into the repechage,
MacDonald faced Spain’s Xabier Cazorla who won with two waza-ari
scores late in the fight.
"I didn’t think I
would get that far,” he said afterwards. “I’m a bit annoyed I
didn’t get further, but I’m still pleased with my performance.
"I thought I was lucky
in the first fight. Usually if I don’t do well in my first fight
my head goes down, but this time I just got stronger and stronger.
"I threw the Polish
guy in the second fight, which was my plan. He did really well
at the Europeans so I knew I had to do something big.
"Overall I came here
wanting to do my best and I will go home having done that, so
I’m really pleased.”
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