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Britain has returned from
the 2006 European Judo Championships in Tampere, Finland with
four medals, including two European titles – its best performance
in ten years.
Craig Fallon won gold on
day one in the –60kg weight category and Sarah Clark won the –63kg
title on day two - the first time in ten years that Britain has
had more than one European Champion at the same time.
Fallon now holds both the
World and European titles – the first British male to do so since
Neil Adams won the European gold in 1983 whilst holding the 1981
World title. The 23-year-old from Wolverhampton beat the reigning
European Champion Armen Nazaryan of Armenia in the final by ippon
to take gold. In the semi final he defeated Athens Olympic silver
medallist Nestor Khergiani of Georgia.
Edinburgh’s Clark beat
World Champion Lucie Decosse of France in the final to take the
top spot on the medal rostrum. The well-deserved title came in
a particularly strong field with Clark also beating the reigning
European Champion Elisabeth Willeboordse in the semi final. The
Dutch Champion eventually finished third as did Olympic bronze
medallist Ylenia Scapin of Italy.
The two British bronzes
were won by Winston Gordon in the –90kg weight category and Peter
Cousins in the –100kg weight category.
It was the first European
medal for Gordon who beat Krzysztof Weglarz of Poland in the repechage
final for the bronze medal. The 27-year-old from London finished
just outside the medals in 5 th place at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Cousins from Harlow
also took bronze having come through the repechage. He defeated
current Olympic Champion Ihar Makarau of Belarus in the bronze
medal fight to take his first senior European medal. The win for
the former Junior European Champion came in the weight category
above his usual –90kg spot.
Edinburgh’s Matthew Purssey
narrowly missed out on a medal finishing 5 th in the men’s –73kg
weight category. As did Michelle Rogers who finished in the same
position in the –78kg weight category.
Karina Bryant was unable
to retain her European title, finishing in 7 th place, after being
knocked out of the repechage by Maryna Prokofyeva of the Ukraine.
The final medal tally of
four means that Great Britain finished third in the overall medal
table - behind France in first place and Russia in second.
Colin McIver, British Judo
Performance Director said, “It was the best performance by a British
team at a European Championships in ten years.
“It saw great performances
from the British team, not only from those who medalled, but across
the entire squad.
“We must now concentrate
on building on this success as we go forward into next year for
the Olympic qualification period for Beijing”
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