Last weekend over 270 judoka from 18 countries descended upon the home of British Judo for the inaugural Birmingham Junior European Cup. The unique opportunity enabled GB judoka, and coaches alike, to experience high levels of competition in a crucial development stage in their careers, on home soil.

Across the two days of competition, 100 British judoka competed against some of the best young talent from across European and the World, including fighters from France, Israel and the United States of America.

On the first day of action, Lewis Fryer (Rush Judo) took silver in the men’s -60kg category whilst there were fifth place finishes for Roxanne Proctor (Westcroft/Team Bath) and Anya Hassan (Middlesbrough Judo) in the -63kg and -78kg categories respectively.

The second day of the competition was golden for Tonbridge Judo Club’s Charlotte Jenman as the number one seed overcame Emma Van Leeuwen (NED) to take gold in the women’s -52kg category. There were also bronze medals for Ammi Takahashi (Ealing Judo Club) in the women’s -57kg and Daniel Ede (Westcroft Judo Club) in the men’s +100kg category.

Other British judoka who were present at the event included regular medallist on the World Judo Tour, Mima Yeats-Brown, and world number one, Lucy Renshalll, who were part of the events teams for the weekend.

There was a great atmosphere across the weekend, which then carried over into a three-day training camp held at the British Judo Olympic and Paralympic National Training Centre.

On the mat we saw judo legends both past and present including World Champion and double Olympic medallist Jimmy Pedro (USA), 2012 Olympic medallist Felipe Kitadai (BRA), 3-time World Champion Masashi Ebinuma (JPN) and 6-time All Japan Champion and double Olympic silver medallist Yoko Tanabe (JPN).

On the final day of the training camp, two-time Olympic silver medallist and World Champion Neil Adams was spotted on the sidelines, as he continues his recovery from a recent shoulder operation.

Overall, the event was a huge success creating the perfect springboard for the event to return to Birmingham as an annual event for British Judo.