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Katie-Jemima Yeats-Brown
led the way for Britain as she claimed the -63kg European Cadet
Championship title, one of Britain’s three medals at the continental
showpiece in Cottonera, Malta.
The Tonbridge Judo Club
standout won all four fights in convincing fashion to take Britain’s
first gold medal at the event since 2005.
Lucy Renshall took silver
while Hayley Willis claimed bronze. Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz finished
a respectable seventh.
Katie-Jemima started
her majestic run to the -63kg title by defeating Croatia’s Ivona
Kapitanovic after following a yuko with an ippon.
The 15-year-old swept past Poland’s
Urszula Hoffman by a significant margin of three yuko and two
waza-ari scores.
In the semi-final France’s
Lisa Marchese was dispatched via ippon to produce a final against
Slovenian Patricija Brolih who had won all three of her bouts
by ippon.
Without having a single point scored
against her in the whole tournament, Katie-Jemima sealed the most
significant win of her career in style as she claimed the European
crown by ippon.
Elsewhere, Lucy Renshall
of SKK Judo Club won four of five fights to take a silver medal.
The -52kg judoka battled
past Turkey’s Hasret Cin by a yuko score and triumphed over Serbia’s
Angelina Poznanovic by a yuko and then ippon.
A victory by waza-ari
over Ukrainian Kateryna Syrovatska led to a semi-final meeting
with France’s Megane Mattei.
Lucy edged out her French
rival by a yuko to take on Romanian Larisa Alexandra Florian in
the final. Despite a spirited display Lucy lost out by ippon to
claim the silver medal.
Hayley Willis, from
Stratford Judo Club, won three of four contests to take the bronze
medal.
The 15-year-old opened
with a win over France’s Florine Belle.
Hayley followed up by
beating Moldova’s Cristina Budescu before losing a semi-final
against Russian Irina Dolgova.
In the bronze medal
contest the -44kg judoka fought France’s Stephanie Gerno and scored
a yuko as her opponent was penalised with two shido’s.
Trevor Sitlinton, Head
of the Delegation, said: “We’re delighted with the players, this
is our best result at the event since 2005.
“Katie-Jemima did brilliantly
to win gold; she won every contest by some margin and Lucy along
with Hayley were very impressive.
“There were 39 countries
in action and nearly 400 judoka for a top level European event
and we finished sixth in the medal table so we’re very pleased
with our results.”
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