|
The British visually
impaired team won five medals at the 2011 German Open, which was
held from 15-16 January in Heidelberg.
For the third time in
both their careers, Ben Quilter and Darren Harris won gold medals
at the Open.
After gold medal wins
in Germany in 2010 and 2006, Quilter made his way to the top of
the rostrum in the -60kg category once again, by winning each
of his fights in his pool of five.
Darren Harris’ two wins
earned him the gold medal in the pools (round-robin) competition
format.
Joe Ingram took a silver
medal in the -100kg competition for the second year in a row.
The Brit faced the same challengers as last year in Oliver Upmann
of Germany and 2010 World bronze medallist Myles Porter of the
USA.
Winning her first German
Open medal, Lesley Reid picked up silver in the 70kg weight category,
which was an amalgamation of -70kg and +70kg fighters.
Reid overcame Erica
Freidmann of Sweden and Barbara Schmidt of Germany, but lost to
current World Champion Olga Zabrodskaya of Russia after a lengthy
fight.
Daniel Powell was also
selected to compete in the German Open for the first time. Powell’s
first fight went to Golden Score and was eventually awarded to
Langhammer (GER) via the flags and a unanimous referee’s decision.
The second fight was against World Champion Matthias Krieger (GER)
and resulted in a win for the German.
David Sanders said,
“This year’s German VI Open was not well attended and not of a
particularly high standard which is a shame when you are trying
to put in strong performances ahead of major tournaments and after
a good block of training. That said, our players did what they
had to do and each of them gained more valuable experience to
take back with them in their preparation for the major events
later in the year and of course London 2012.
The Team is staying
out in Germany for the training camp and will be put through their
paces by Jean-Paul Bell.”
Full Results:
-60kg Ben Quilter –
Gold
-66kg Darren Harris – Gold
-81kg Daniel Powell – Bronze
-100kg Joe Ingram – Silver
+70kg LesleyReid – Silver
©
Mike Varey
Ben Quilter
in action at the 2010 British Open
|