Ashley McKenzie became Britain’s second U23 European Champion on Friday 19th November, following in the footsteps of Craig Fallon who clinched the title in 2004.

The gold medal is a career best for the 21-year-old who last year settled for bronze at the event in the -60kg weight category. Gemma Howell also replicated her result of 2008 in winning bronze and Theo Spalding-McIntosh finished in the top eight.

McKenzie put on an impressive display throughout the day, winning three out of four fights by ippon.

After a bye in the first round, it was Yanislav Gerchev of Bulgaria who was first to feel the wrath of McKenzie, followed by Andrej Klovoc of Lithunaia in the third round.

In the semi-final, the pressure was on to win his fight against Olle Sundstroem of Sweden and better his bronze medal from last year. McKenzie kept his cool and secured his place in the final with an ippon throw.

Fighting for the gold medal, McKenzie fought Robert Mshvidobadze of Russia, the 2009 U23 European Championship silver medallist.

It was a gripping final and McKenzie was the first to score, gaining a yuko. He then kept the pressure on the Russian to go further ahead scoring a waza-ari. The clock ran out and the title was McKenzie's.

Mckenzie said, “I had a really good day although it started fairly slowly, I felt I was getting stronger with each fight.

"I managed to use some throws today that I have been working on, which pleased me, for example my ko-uchi-gari. This medal is one of many I hope and I would like to thank the support team I have around me.”

Howell started her surge, seeing off Ana Tatalovic of Slovenia and Alessia Regis of Italy in the preliminaries.

In the semi-final, it was 2008 and 2009 U23 European silver medallist Stefania Andreea Chitu of Romania who cut the Brit’s winning streak short and took the place in the final.

Howell was left to fight it out in the bronze medal final against Mia Hermansson of Sweden, who at just 17-years-old has four junior European Cup medals to show this year. Howell kept her focus to overcome the youngster and win well deserved bronze medal.

After stepping off the medal rostrum she said, “I was disappointed to not be in the final but very happy to be on the rostrum, although I really wanted to hear the British National anthem.

“I was pleased with my o-soto-gari in the bronze fight because I don't usually try it in competition but it has transferred really well from training.

“It’s nice finishing the European Circuit with a medal and now I'm looking forward to Korea and hopefully picking up some ranking points.” 

Elsewhere in the competition, Kimberley Renicks (-48kg), Kelly Edwards (-52kg) Kate Walker (-63kg), Jan Gosiewski (-73kg) and David Groom (-81kg) reached the second round and Lewis Keeble went out in a tough opening fight in the -66kg competition.

Megan Fletcher (-70kg) was notebly absent from team after being forced to withdraw from the competition due to injury.

On the final day of competition, Theo Spalding-McIntosh finished in the top eight of the -90kg weight category. The Brit progressed to the quarter final overcoming Luka Lesko (CRO) in the first round and Bagac Erdal of Turkey in the second round.

Spalding-McIntosh then lost a very competitive pool final to Aaron Hildebrand of Germany, who went on to win the category, and lost to Sain Mammadov (AZE) in the repechage.

Commenting on the team's performance, Margaret Hicks, Performance Director said, "At the end of these championships, it was good to see young players making progress towards London 2012, with medals won by players who are well connected into the centralised programme at the BJPI.

"It is important to keep the momentum going with these players and also the rest of the elite team, who will compete in the next IJF Olympic Qualifying events, the World Cup in Korea and Grand Slam in Tokyo next month and participate in their training camps.

Patrick Roux, Head Coach, said, "To win a gold medal at the European Under 23s is a very important marker, because this means a player is close to perform at the highest level. Our strategy is to ensure we now focus our resources on the players who we believe can make a performance impact for 2012 and Rio."