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The best result on day
one of the European Championships, held in Vienna, Austria, comes
from Britain’s young emerging talent, Kelly Edwards.
Edwards earned a 7th
place in the -48kg weight category, a career best for the 19-year-old
from Telford who has been recovering from a hip operation at the
end of 2008.
Prior to injury, Edwards
excelled on the junior scene winning a bronze medal at the 2008
Junior European Championships.
Now with her injury
behind her she won a silver medal at the Junior Belgium Ladies
Open in January, and has had her first taste of a senior event
now at the European Championships.
After receiving a bye
in the first round, Edwards faced Volha Leshchanka of Belarus
in her first fight.
Kelly threw the Belarusian
for wazari with a cross grip seoi toshi in the third minute. She
immediately evaded a strong juji gatame attack and controlled
the remainder of the fight.
Edwards’ second fight
was against World silver medallist Oiana Blanco of Spain. It was
a close three minutes for the Brit with the Spanish opponent dropping
underneath her grip with seoi nage. She evaded the attacks until
finally being caught for ippon.
Left to fight through
the repechage, Edwards took to the mat against Charline Van Snick
of Belgium. Despite being poked in the eye with the first gripping
exchange she composed herself well, but was strangled in the fourth
minute, and took her place in 7th.
Colin Oates (-66kg)
and James Millar (-60kg) failed to progress, both going out first
round, Oates to World Silver medallist Sugoi Uriarte of Spain
and Millar to Jeroen Mooren of the Netherlands.
Commenting on the first
day of the European Championships, Head Coach Patrick Roux said,
“It has not been a good day for the men. James did not deliver
the performance he could of, not like the impressive performance
we saw at the World Cup in Austria.
“Colin was confident
going into his fight as he had beaten the Spanish last October
in Tokyo, but he didn’t take enough risks and could have engaged
himself more in his fight.
“Both are hard workers
though and I am confident we will see them react from this event
in the near future.
“Kelly put in a good
performance. She didn’t look out of place amongst the senior fighters
and was close to the top five, narrowly missing out to the Belgian.
“She has a really interesting
profile, as she is still a junior but she was ready for this challenge
and looked committed to it. She is a great example of a transitional
player connecting to this level through the strategy and showing
potential for London 2012.”
Senior Women's Coach
Jane Bridge has been working closely with Kelly at the BJPI and
said, "Today was agood opportunity for me to assess the technical
developments I have been working on with Kelly. The strong relationship
I have built with her personal coach Gareth Mapp has fast tracked
the content we have been able to cover to become effective in
competition. It was a good performance today with many positives
to take away and build on in the future. Kelly is a young player
willing to make the commitment required to enter the top of the
International field."
Fighting tomorrow is
Faith Pitman (-63kg), Sally Conway (-70kg), Daniel Williams (-73kg)
and Euan Burton (-81kg).
Kelly
Edwards finished in 7th place
© David
Finch
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