Britain fielded a team in both the Men and Women’s European Team Championships, which coincided with the European Championships held from the 22nd -25th April in Vienna, Austria.

The British Women’s team, which included Kelly Edwards (-52kg), Connie Ramsay (-57kg), Faith Pitman (-63kgs), Gemma Gibbons and (-70kgs) and Sarah Adlington (+70kgs), were drawn against a strong Italian team in the first round.

The decorated Italian team included Olympic Beijing Olympic Champion Giulia Quintavalle and current silver medallist of the European individual Championship, Edwige Gwend.

The team struggled to overcome the Italian opponents and lost 5-0, leaving the Brits to fight in the repechage against Russia.

It was an exciting match, and GB managed to comeback from 2-0 down to win 3-2, with impressive wins from Faith Pitman, Gemma Gibbons - who threw her opponent for ippon and Sarah Adlington who managed to secure the final win.

On a new found high after a win over the Russian team, they progressed to the bronze medal final against France. Kelly Edwards fought well and attacked continuously, but got caught with uchimata for wazari against Climence.

Connie Ramsay lost to the current World Champion, Morgane Ribout, at -57kgs and Faith Pitman lost to ex World Champion and this year's Paris Grand Slam winner, Gevrise Emane at 63kgs.

Sarah Adlington was unfortunate not to see out her contest with Lucie Louette, as the French fighter won the fight early on. Sally Conway replaced Gibbons in the -70kg final, but didn’t get to fight as the French withdrew their player.

Despite some good individual efforts, the score ran out to 4-1 and GB settled for 5 th place.

Italy became the European Team Champions in the women’s event, winning the final against Poland 4-1. And Ukraine joined France on the rostrum with bronze.

Pleased to see some improvements from the team, Senior Women’s Coach Jane Bridge said, “I was particularly pleased how Faith Pitman progressed throughout the competition showing a wide range of techniques and Kelly Edwards returning from injury demonstrated good potential for the future.

“It was a good experience for transitional players such as Connie Ramsay -57kgs and Sarah Adlington at heavyweight to fight in this arena. The team spirit was good and we can build on this going into the Worlds later this year.”

The British Men’s team, which included Jean Rene Badrick (-66kg), Daniel Williams (-73kg), Euan Burton (-81kg), Andy Burns (-100kg) and Chris Sherrington (+100kg), were drawn against the French team in the first round.

The French line-up included current European Champion Sofiane Milous (-66kg) and World Champion Teddy Riner (+90kg).

Euan Burton won his bout, countering Antoine Jeannin with a pick up for ippon in golden score. But the Brits finished 4-1 down to the French team, moving them out of the competition.

It was the Georgian team who took the top spot - their fourth European Men’s team title. France finished in second place followed by Romania and Russia taking bronze.