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Joe and Sam Ingram have
become the first British siblings to both win silver medals at
a World Championships.
The two brothers from Coventry
have added to Britain’s medal haul, of gold and a bronze, on the
final day of competition at the 2010 IBSA VI World Championships,
held in Antalya, Turkey.
Joe, who trains full time
at the British Judo Performance Institute in Dartford, kept his
focus on his own contests to win the silver medal in the -100kg
weight category.
“I didn’t watch Sam’s final,
I tried to keep my focus and not get too overwhelmed going into
the fight,” he said.
Seeing off the challenges
of Rees (CAN) and Kurdo (TUR) in the early rounds with ippon scores,
he progressed to the semi final against 2008 Beijing Paralympic
champion, Antonio Silva of Brazil.
It was a hard fought match,
with Silva threatening to throw Joe in the first half of the fight,
but Joe won the fight, countering Silva for ippon.
Describing the fight, Joe
said, “This is the first time I have fought Silva, and it was
tough. It felt good to beat him – it was a real highlight for
me.”
In the final, Joe was unable
to get into the fight against Choi of Korea and was thrown for
ippon and settled for the silver medal.
“The Korean was just too
good, he had a good grip on me but I am happy with my silver medal,
I fought hard for it.”
Sam (-90kg) soared through
his preliminary rounds, beating Dashtseren (MGL), Kudu (TUR) and
Mirhassan (IRA) in the quarter final, winning every fight with
an ippon score.
His semi-final fight was
much of the same and he dominated the flow of the match. He caught
the Ukranian fighter Pominov to win by ippon.
Sam also faced a Beijing
Paralympic champion in his final, Kretsul of Russia, who Sam lost
to in the semi-final of the 2009 European Championships. The Brit
received penalty points against him for holding off, but soon
got into his stride to dominate the attack. Despite continuing
to dominate the fight, he was unable to get the score and also
settled for a silver medal.
The Beijing Paralympic
bronze medallist, who trains at one of British Judo’s recognised
training centres, Ratho in Edinburgh said, “I am happy I got to
the final, I put in some good performances in the early rounds.
It’s always disappointing to lose in the final, but I felt the
fight was closer this time round between us, and I can go away
and work on my core judo and beat him next time.”
Also winning a medal on
the final day of the Championships, Lesley Reid took a well deserved
bronze.
The bronze medal is a career
best for Reid, who is only one of two females to represent Great
Britain in the visually impaired squad.
After receiving a bye in
the first round, Reid faced Davies of USA in her first contest.
She moved her opponent well scoring early on in the fight, to
then secure the win with a hold for ippon.
Reid progressed to the
semi-final to fight Yuan of China. Yuan used her weight to pin
the Brit in a hold early on in the fight to win the contest, leaving
Reid to fight for bronze through the repechage.
Determined to not go home
empty handed, she controlled her Bulgarian opponent, Ivormira,
from the start and won the fight and the bronze medal with a skilful
foot sweep and ippon score.
Commenting on the team’s
performance, Margaret Hicks, Performance Director said, “The medals
(including a world title) won by this team are a great indication
that the technical influence of Patrick Roux, Head Coach and the
professionally managed VI programme, led by Dave Sanders, Paralympic
Programme Manager, being delivered out of the BJPI in Dartford
and Ratho, is starting to have a real performance impact. This
also includes the integrated coaching with new VI lead coach Jean
Paul Bell, sport science and sport medicine support. These results
are an important marker for Paralympic success in London 2012.”
Media Contact:
Nicola Turner
PR Officer
British Judo Association
(t) 01509 631692/07854
244343
nicola.turner@britishjudo.org.uk
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