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Euan Burton has taken
bronze at the European Judo Championships, being held in Vienna,
Austria – the first medal of the Championships so far for Great
Britain.
The now three time European
bronze medallist received a bye in the first round of the -81kg
competition and won his first fight against Arutyun Sarkisyan
of Ukraine, after the Ukrainian was penalised three times for
passivity.
Progressing to the quarter
final, the Scottish fighter faced Guillaume Elmont of the Netherlands.
After both players received penalty warnings, Burton pressed forward
and was caught for ippon, losing the bout.
Fighting in the repechage,
he faced Sergiu Toma of Maldovia, an opponent that Burton lost
to at the Paris Grand Slam earlier this year. But it was a different
story in this re-match when Burton managed to maintain control
of the fight to secure the win and go into bronze medal fight.
It was then down to
the final fight against Antoine Jeannin of France for the bronze
medal. Burton held his opponent twice on the ground to score yuko
and even up the score before throwing for ippon.
Immediately after stepping
off the rostrum, Burton said, “Having come into the tournament
to win and be European Champion it is disappointing not to be
that. I am more relieved than delighted to get the bronze”.
The 31-year-old has
had a string of consistent performances recently winning gold
at the Tokyo Grand Slam and silver at the German Grand Prix.
“I felt so good coming
into the tournament”, he said. “I was in good condition and felt
strong all the way through. Going into the bronze medal fight
I just didn’t want to give him a chance. Fighting against the
French is always going to be tough and never easy. They are strong,
technically sound and well prepared so I just had to go out hard”.
Commenting on Euan’s
performance, Head Coach Patrick Roux said, “It was clear that
Euan has improved tactically from the work he has been doing at
various training camps, with his coach Billy and with the BJPI
staff.
“He demonstrated his
dynamic judo techniques and won with a wonderful ippon in the
bronze medal fight. I am positive that he will perform well in
the near future.”
Burton now has his sights
set on the remaining major Championships of 2010 including the
Moscow Grand Slam and the World Championships.
Taking a hard earned
7th place was Daniel Williams, who made his European debut and
also celebrated his 21st Birthday on the coach trip over to Vienna.
Faith Pitman also finished in 7th
place after losing her repechage fight against Claudia Ahrens
of Germany , despite her positive start beating Hilde Drexler
of Austria.
Pitman was praised by
Roux for the growth shown in these Championships and for “putting
in a good performance and showing skill in her first two fights.”
Sally Conway (70kg) failed to progress
past the first round, losing to Olesya Ovseychuk of Russia.
“We are building a system
for performance leading up to the 2012 London Olympics and beyond
and we have to be ready on time. The players have demonstrated
more effective judo today, which is encouraging,” Roux added.
The third and final
day of the Championships will see Samantha Lowe (-78kg), Karina
Bryant (+78kg) and Matthew Purssey (-90kg) compete.
2010
European bronze medallist Euan Burton (-81kg)
©
David Finch
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