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Team GB’s judo players
excelled at the European Youth Olympics Festival in Turkey as
Sam Hall took silver and Hayley Willis claimed bronze.
Hall, 15, from Ryecroft
Judo Club, won three of four contests in the -55kg category to
secure the biggest result of his young career.
The fast-rising judoka
had a bye in the first round before defeating Moldovan Iulian
Peaticovschi.
A win over Croatian Tim
Mihael Capar sealed a semi-final meeting with Ukrainian Pavlo
Skopnenko.
Hall registered a yuko
and two waza-ari scores to impressively take his place in the
final.
In a tense final Hall narrowly
lost out to Dzmitry Minkou of Belarus.
"My aim coming into
the competition was to win a medal and the fact that I have done
that means I am really chuffed with my performance," said
Hall, who benefits from being on the Lloyds TSB Local Heroes Initiative.
"It would have been
nice to win the gold and on another day I think that I might have
been able to do it but it just wasn't to be this time around.
"And I also had to
finish in the top five in my weight category to get into the World
Cadets which I have managed to do so I have that to look forward
to now.
"Winning silver in
Turkey gives me confidence for that competition and I will be
looking to go there and win gold after just missing out this time
around."
2011 European Cadets Championship
bronze medallist Hayley Willis, of Stratford Judokai in Essex,
took bronze.
The 15-year-old came to
the fore in the repechage with wins over France's Florine Belle,
Moldova's Cristina Budescu and sealed a bronze medal by defeating
Turkey's Nazlican Kilic.
Tayside’s Aiden Moffat
recorded the biggest result of his young career with a fifth-place
in Turkey. Jodie Myers also took fifth and the pair will now compete
at the World Cadet Championships from 11 – 14 August in Kiev,
Ukraine.
European Cadets Champion
Katie-Jemima Yeats-Brown took fifth-place while Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz
took seventh.
Matt Divall, Head of judo
delegation, said: “The performance from the team was pleasing
in what were very hot and humid conditions. The players were all
very competitive and showed that there isn’t a lot of difference
between the top European competitors at this level, with several
players raising their performances and exceeding their own expectations.
“Being part of Team GB
was a fantastic experience for the team, mixing with other athletes
from different sports and I have no doubt that their experiences
gained from their time in Trabzon, Turkey will help them in their
future quests for glory on a stage such as the Olympic Games.”
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