GB Judoka Bring Home Medals From Latvia and Germany

It was a tremendous weekend of judo across the continent with Great British judoka flying the flag across Latvia and Germany, with some standout performances on the tatami from the team.

Starting at the Riga Senior European Cup, Nicole Wood was the standout performer as she claimed her first ever Gold medal on the European circuit as she defeated Northern Ireland’s Rachael Hawkes in an all-British final in the -78kg competition.

Wood showed grit and determination all day to fight her way onto top spot with none of her opponents able to register a score against the young Scottish judoka. She continued that form into the final and swept aside Hawkes – forcing her to submit within the first thirty seconds of the contest.

Hawkes has fond memories of Riga having won this competition back in 2023 at her previous weight of -70kg, but having made the step up to -78kg this weekend, she looked at home with clinical victories over Begona Sotillo Gomez (ESP) and British compatriot Anya Hassan on the way to setting up the Gold medal contest with Wood.

Hassan was able to shake off the semi-final defeat disappointment to take home Bronze and complete a trio of medals for GB in the -78kg category. An excellent uchi-mata in the opening ten seconds underlined was enough to secure the quick win and deserved place next to her compatriots.

There were a further four Bronze medals for the male squad in Riga with Tommy Jackson (-73kg), Rory Tyrrell (-81kg), Adam Hall (+100kg) and Gregor Miller (+100kg) all claiming hard-fought places on the podium.

Tommy Jackson will be delighted with his performance on the day, claiming his first European medal in -73kg competition.

He didn’t have things his own way on the day with a number of close-fought contests, none more so than his opening contest which was settled by a single Yuko. He grew into the day however, with waza-ari and ippon victories giving him some momentum, before he came unstuck in the semi final against Moldova’s Vlad Mitru. The bronze medal contest went all the way with Jackson scoring the decisive waza-ari with a minute remaining on the clock, as he showed good contest management to see off his Ukrainian opponent.

Rory Tyrell continues to find his feet in the -81kg category and added a third medal to his collection since moving up from -73kg in 2024. Quality judo in the opening round saw him force his opponent to submit on the mat, before he was pushed all the way to Golden Score in the Round of 16. Despite losing the Quarter Final to Ukraine’s Anton Klymenko, he dusted himself off and enjoyed two ippon victories in the repechage to progress through to the Bronze medal contest where, despite not being able to continue his run of ippons, he controlled the contest courtesy of three Yuko scores.

39 year-old Adam Hall rolled back the years as he joined Gregor Miller on the podium in the +100kg competition. In just his second international competition in eight years, he had to put the disappointment of an opening round defeat, courtesy of three shidos, to one side and bounced back in style. With a walk-over in the first repechage contest, solid groundwork gave him the win and setup a Bronze medal contest against Ukraine’s Ivan Maiboroda. With thirty seconds remaining on the clock, Hall showed his experience and registered Waza-ari-awasete-ippon to take home the medal.

Beyond the medals, several British athletes reached the latter stages of their categories with shoutouts to Samuel Petgrave (5th, -90kg), Nordine Adrif (7^th, -60kg), Jaden Calder (7^th, -100kg), and Sunny Doig (7^th, -63kg) who all placed in their respective divisions.

Bremen International Masters

Over in Germany, Reece Blackshaw led the side in bringing home a Bronze medal in a stacked -55kg competition including 61 competitors. Traditionally known as an incredibly competitive event, a gruelling day saw him complete seven contests throughout the day to take home a well-earnt medal, overcoming some top opposition on the day including the World No.19 Ibrahim Talibov (AZE) in the Bronze medal competition. Ishamael Brown narrowly missed out on joining Blackshaw on the podium as he lost his Bronze medal contest.

Peter Davies (-81kg) and Kevin Gordon (-100kg) both finished seventh in their respective categories to earn more valuable time on the mat.

Thuringia Cup

Eva Ewing won the sole Bronze medal for the team at the Thuringia Cup, with a number of close calls for the GB team over the weekend. Ewing’s medal saw her reach the podium for the first time since the Kaunas Junior European Cup in May last year, and she will be hoping to kick on off the back of an impressive day on the mat.

She had to overcome fellow Brit Olivia Barfoot-Saunt in the Repechage before toppling Germany’s Emilia Lemm in the Final to take home the medal.

The team had a number of near misses on the day with Katrina Davis (7^th, -44kg), Maisie Broadley (5^th, -52kg), Hannah King (7^th, -52kg), Evie Mitchell (5^th, -57kg), Zoe Galbraith (7^th, -70kg) and Lola Hodson (5^th , -52kg) all coming close to adding to GB Judo’s tally.