There were three 5th place finishes for the two British teams in Europe this weekend - Colin Oates in Georgia at the Tbilisi World Cup and Sally Conway and Sarah Adlington in Bulgaria at the Sophia World Cup.

The Tbilisi and Sofia World Cups were the first World Cups of 2009 and saw the official introduction of the quarter final repechage system, meaning only players who reach the quarter final contest had the opportunity to be pulled back into the repechage.

Under the previous rules Craig Fallon (-66kg), Alex Farbon (-73kg) and Matthew Purssey (-81kg) competing in Tbilisi, and Sian Wilson (-78kg) and Lindsey Purves (-78kg) competing in Sofia would have returned into the repechage for the chance to progress to the bronze medal fight.

It was also for the World Cup events under the new scoring rules with the koka score – the smallest score – now removed. In addition new ruling, which does not allow for matside coaching, is now in force.

In Tbilisi, Colin Oates started strong beating Torii Tomoo of Japan and Orkan Hajiagali of Azerbaijan but lost to Tigran Kazaryan of the Ukraine. In the repechage he defeated Mindia Khomizori of Georgia by ippon in the third minute, but lost in the bronze medal contest to David Larose of France, who had also defeated fellow Brit Craig Fallon earlier in the day.

In Sofia, Sally Conway beat Katharina Hilger of Germany, before losing to Abigel Joo of Hungary. In the repechage she beat Ana Velenseksco of Slovenia but lost in the bronze medal match to Haruka Tachimoto of Japan.

Sarah Adlington also missed out on the bronze medal after losing to Franziska Konitz of Germany in the bronze medal final and Olympic bronze medallist Lucija Polavder of Slovenia in the semi final. The Brit had a better start to the competition defeating both Irine Leonidze of Georgia and Aya Ishiyama of Japan to win her pool.

There were also two 7th place finishes in Sofia from Faith Pitman in the -57kg weight category and Sophie Johnstone in the -52kg weight category.

Commenting afterwards Head Coach, Patrick Roux said, “The level and the intensity of each contest, particularly with the added influence of the new repechage system and rules, was extremely high. Despite the results the main target for these events was to create a reference point for the team early on in this foundation phase of the Olympic Cycle.

“Some players although not achieving medals at these two tournaments are close to the podium level - extremely encouraging at this early stage. For others it has set down a clear marker of targets for the future, in fact for some this was the first experience of a World Cup event.

“For all the team, it is very important to understand that all of this 2009 season has to be invested on technical, tactical, physical and mental improvement,’ he added.

Media contact:

Emma Griffin

(t) 07875 368495

emmagriffin@britishjudo.org.uk