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Britain’s Colin Oates has
taken bronze in a 57 competitor strong category at the Prague
World Cup.
Oates defeated France’s
David Czukiewycz after just 50 seconds of the -66kg weight category
bronze medal fight in the Czech capital on Saturday.
It is his first World Cup
medal of the year and follows Euan Burton’s silver medal at the
German Grand Prix last weekend.
Commenting afterwards Oates
said, “This is no doubt my most significant medal to date.
I have taken a World Cup medal before but to win bronze in such
a strong field feels great.
“I am now just focusing
on getting back to training and selection for the European Championships”,
he added.
The Brit won his first
fight against Miguel Albarracin of Argentina with a hold down
for ippon. His second against Albert Techov of Lithuania
went to a full five minutes with Oates winning with two penalty
scores on the board.
Against Igor Buryi of the
Ukrainian the contest also went to full time with Oates winning
by waza-ari. In an even fight against Poland’s Pawel Zagridnik
it looked to go the Brits way but with a minute to go Zagridnik
threw Oates to end his hopes of a clear run to the final.
Despite his disappointment
the 26-year-old went into his repechage fight against Tunisian
Ragheb Karchoud strong throwing his opponent for ippon after three
minutes to take his place in the bronze medal fight.
Oates, a member of the
Kumo Judo Club in Diss, also trains at the British Judo Performance
Institute in Dartford. He won British Judo’s Most Improved
British Squad Player award in 2009.
Great Britain Coach Darren
Warner said, “Colin’s medal is well deserved having dominated
the entire day in a tough category of 57 competitors. Even
in the fight he lost against Poland’s Zagrodnik he was in control
but was just caught out.
“Head Coach Patrick Roux
has put an emphasis on our players building their fight and taking
control. Everything we are working on in training Colin has been
put into practice during this tournament. This was
no doubt Colin’s best performance to date and he is still improving”.
“The entire team of six
here this weekend have fought really hard”, he added.
Media Contact
Emma Griffin
British Judo
(t) 07875 368495
(e) emma.griffin@britishjudo.org.uk
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