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Freya Dechastelain and
Lewis Keeble both won a bronze medals on the first day of the
2010 Junior European Championships, being held in Bulgaria from
17th -19th September.
Making her debut on the
junior European stage, the 16-year-old from Wolverhampton Judo
Club had a bye in the first round and fought Olena Kunytska (Ukraine)
in the second.
In the quarter final, Karolina
Pienkowska of Poland beat the Brit by ippon.
Left to fight through the
repechage, Dechastelain won her third fight against Ana Marie
Ghindriu of Romania by ippon for a place in the bronze medal final.
The final saw the Brit
fight a talented 18-year-old from the Netherlands, Mandy Tjokroatmo.
After a series of attacks from Dechastelain, the fight went to
full-time with no score on the scoreboard.
In golden score the Brit
kept the pressure on but again there were no points scored, leaving
it to the three referee’s decisions to determine the winner. With
three blue flags in the air, Dechastelain was the clear winner
of a well deserved bronze medal.
After stepping off the
medal rostrum Northampton-born Dechastelain said, “It is amazing
to win this medal. I felt so much better in this competition that
I did at the Cadet European Championships earlier this year.
“Fighting older players
is tough as they are strong and have better gripping, but I felt
good going into the Championships and I am really pleased to win
a bronze medal.
“Hopefully I will be selected
for the Junior World Championships next year, but for this year
it has been busy with my GCSE’s and judo but it was all worth
it now.”
Cornwall’s Tamar Judo Club
fighter Lewis Keeble won his opening fight against Alexander Weichinger
of Austria in golden score by the referee’s flags.
In the second round, the
19-year-old had a quick win over Vincent Valle of France with
an impressive ippon throw.
Keeble then lost to Georgios
Azdidis of Greece in the semi-final, taking him straight into
the repechage, with the opportunity to progress further.
In the repechage Keeble
defeated Julian Kolein of Germany and won his first Junior European
bronze medal, a career best for the RAF Regt Gunner who has been
released from duty to train full time at the British Judo Performance
Institute in Dartford.
After stepping off the
medal rostrum Keeble said, “All the hard work has really paid
off now.
“Half way through the year
I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to compete due to an injury,
but with the help of the staff at the Institute I have made a
good recovery and was really pleased I managed to step up my game.
“It was a really tough
competition but I am really happy get the medal.”
Elsewhere in the Championships,
another cadet player making her debut on the junior stage was
Hayley Willis (-44kg), who came up against Anne-Sophie Jura, the
2009 Junior European Champion.
Brandon Dodge put in a
good performance in the -55kg weight category, as did Samantha
Clark in the -52kg competition.
Commenting on the two medallist’s
performance, Performance Operations Manager Karen Roberts said,
“Freya put in a fantastic performance. She has still got another
three years competing at junior level and she has had a really
good year as a cadet.
“She looked like she had
a weight off her shoulders and was attacking well, and with her
club coach Bill Kelly and British Judo’s Lead Development Coach
Kate Howey behind her, she really came through.
“For Lewis this is a fantastic
result after coming back from a two month injury lay-off. The
staff at the Institute concentrated on Lewis’ recovery and build
up to the Championships, which has really helped get him to the
best condition he could be.
“This was a really good
performance from the team as a whole. They came here to perform
and all had a positive attitude which showed on the mat,” Roberts
said of the team’s performance.
“Hayley, the youngest of
the team, had a tough fight first round against the former Champion,
but really held her own and only lost by a yuko,” Roberts added.
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