A five-strong visually impaired judo team heads out to Hungary tomorrow to compete in the 2009 European Championships.

The team of Ben Quilter (-60kg), brothers Joe (-100kg) and Sam Ingram (-90kg), Darren Harris (-66kg), plus Daniel Powell (-73kg), who will compete in the junior event, will fly out for Debrecen, Hungary on Wednesday 1 st July and will compete between the 3 rd to the 5 th July.

Paralympic bronze medallist Sam Ingram made his debut at this event back in 2007 when he finished in 5 th place and went on to win silver at the 2007 World Championships. Since then, the 23-year-old Edinburgh-based athlete has gone from strength to strength winning bronze in Beijing and more recently double gold at the 2009 German Open in May in both the -90kg category and the heavy weight event.

Brother to Sam, Joe Ingram makes his debut after being out of the sport for two years. Joe moved to Dartford, from his home town in Coventry, to train at the British Judo Performance Institute full time in March this year. Joe’s last major tournament was the 2007 World Championships.

Paralympian Ben Quilter (pictured) narrowly missed a bronze in the under-60kg category in Beijing but as three-times European medallist, he will be a favourite going into this competition.

Paralympian Darren Harris has competed in the last two European Championships, winning silver in the under-66kg class in 2007 in Azerbaijan. Last month Darren won gold at the German Open in both the -66kg category and open class for the light weight event.

This will be the first time that the junior continental Championships has been organised alongside a senior event, giving junior player Daniel Powell the chance to gain experience of travelling as part of a senior delegation. Powell, son of two-time Paralympian Terry, will compete on the Sunday (5 th ) against the other top visually impaired juniors from Europe.

Media Contact:

Nicola Turner

British Judo Association

(t) 01509 631695

nicolaturner@britishjudo.org.uk