18th February 2008

Gold rush for Fallon

Craig Fallon continued his gold medal winning form at the 2008 Vienna World Cup this weekend, taking the top spot in the –60kg weight category.

The Former World and European Champion has won gold in the last four tournaments he has entered, starting with the GB World Cup last September, as well as the Baku World Cup in October, and the 2007 Swedish Open in the November.

Gold was a fantastic result for Fallon, who sustained a shoulder injury in January, and was unable to compete earlier in the year. He now sits number one in the European Olympic rankings in the –60kg weight category.

In his pool Fallon beat Valtteri Jokinen of Finland by waza-ari, and then Andreas Krassas of Cyprus by the maximum ippon score. Next in a controlled match against Amiran Papinashvili of Georgia he finished by a koka up, the result of a penalty against his opponent. He won his pool after overwhelming Elio Verde of Italy by ippon after just two minutes.

In the semi-final he beat young French star Dimitri Dragin in the semi final, which set him up against Ludwig Paischer of Austria in the final, a rematch of the 2005 World Championships when Fallon won the title. Despite Paischer having the support of the home crowd behind him, Fallon proved his form winning with a waza-ari score on the board.

Colin Oates in the –66kg weight category put in other consistent performance finishing in 9 th place. In his pool he beat Mindia Khomizuri of Georgia by a waza-ari score, and then Dragan Crnov of Croatia by ippon before defeating former European Champion Elchin Ismaylov of Azerbaijan.

Unfortunately he couldn’t get by Nicola Giovanni Casale of Italy or Ludwing Ortiz of Venezuela in repecahge final but should be encouraged by another solid performance, which will hopefully reward him with a medal berth in the near future.

Also this weekend the women were in Hungary at 2008 Budapest World Cup where the best result was a 7 th from Sophie Johnstone in the –52kg weight category.

In the pool she was unfortunate to lose to Ioana-Maria Aluas Dinea of Romania in the last 20 seconds after being a yuko up the rest of the fight. She then got pulled back into the repechage round where she beat Shirley Elliot of France after a tough battle that saw her down a score before coming back to win the fight by strangling her opponent.

Next she beat Erika Souza Miranda of Brazil, but unfortunately lost to Carracosa of Brazil in the last few seconds of the repechage final to leave her in 7 th place.

To qualify the GB spot for Beijing a top 9 placing for men, or a top 5 placing for women, is required at the end of the qualification period (only one spot per country allowed).

The latest European Olympic Qualification Rankings following the weekend’s events can be found below.

-60kg

1st Craig Fallon

4th James Millar

-66kg

29 th Colin Oates

-73kg

18th Matt Purssey

-81kg

GB spot qualified

-90kg

10th Winston Gordon

-100kg

GB spot qualified

-52kg

12th Georgina Singleton

15 th Sophie Johnstone

-57kg

8th Faith Pitman

-63kg

2nd Sarah Clark

-70kg

14th Sally Conway

20 th Samantha Lowe

-78kg

1st Michelle Rogers

+78kg

GB spot qualified

Places above have been calculated by discounting those spots/countries already qualified.

Media Contact:

Emma Griffin

(t) 01509 631692

(m) 07875 368495

emmagriffin@britishjudo.org.uk