25th February 2008

Silver for Conway in Hamburg

Sally Conway achieved valuable Olympic ranking points in the -70kg weight category when she won silver at the 2008 Hamburg Super World Cup at the weekend – a personal best in her senior career.

The 21-year-old is now ranked 8th in the European rankings at this weight, but with a GB place for Beijing requiring a 5th or above in the women’s categories, she still has to put in strong performances at the Warsaw World Cup next weekend, and the 2008 European Championships.

In her first fight of the pool Conway beat the very physical Gisele Mendy of Senegal, and then Erica Barbier of Italy after a flurry of scores, which proved that she was the strongest of the pair.

Against the experienced Yulia Kuzina of Russia her opponent went a score up early on with a leg grab. Sally then went in for a throw which the Russian resisted causing the referee to incorrectly score an ippon against the Brit. Once this was rectified Conway managed to get a koka score on the board to bring the scores level. Conway built the pressure up after this and finally threw the Russian for ippon to win the fight.

In the semi-final Conway threw Shumei Dou of China for a waza-ari score quite early on in the fight. The left handed Chinese fighter relentlessly came at the Brit and she succumbed to two penalties. Despite this the Edinburgh player stayed in the fight and handled Dou well to secure the win and place in final. Afterwards a delighted Conway said, “Every competition and every contest I feel like I am getting better and stronger, so I am really looking forward to the final”.

In the final Conway faced the formidable Castillo of Cuba, in a fight that remained close to the end. However the Cuban scored a yuko on the young Brit, which was the deciding score in the contest.

“I am disappointed that I have lost but this medal and performance is the next step in my senior career”, Conway said afterwards.

Tom Davis added to the British results with a 7th place in the -81kg category.

Tom lost his first round fight against the 2007 Brazilian World Champion Camillo, but was pulled back in to the repercharge by this particularly strong competitor.

In the first fight of the repercharge he faced the well-known Moldovian player, Bivol whom he clearly controlled before finally forcing a submission with a strangle. He built on this win when he beat Hein of Germany in front of a home crowd, to secure his place in the repercharge final.

The fight against the Portuguese competitor- Neto was extremely close but unfortunately Davis was caught with a drop kata gurma for ippon- finishing his day of competition

Britain’s other place came from Sarah Clark who finished 7th in the -63kg despite being unwell in the run up to the tournament.

In her pool Clark consciously changed her style of fighting by trying to control the pace to deal with her recovery from illness. This paid off as she threw the Brazilian Yuri Barbosa for ippon.

She then made easy work of German Champion Stephanie Steinmetz again beating her opponent by the maximum ippon score but lost to Anicka Van Emden of the Netherlands, which left Clark in the repechage.

Next it seemed to be a stalemate against the 2003 World Champion Krukower of Argentina, with both fighters being tall and left handed. Despite this Sarah proved to be sharp on the ground and finished fight off with a strangle. She also looked strong against Virginie Henry of France who she threw for the maximum ippon score.

Clark’s final fight was against World and Olympic medallist Sun Hui Kye of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Clark was held down for ippon, which finished the fight as well as Clark’s hopes for a medal.

The last World Cup events take place next weekend when Craig Fallon, James Millar, Colin Oates, Matt Purssey, Lee Shinkin, Winston Gordon, James Austin and Andy Burns travel to the 2008 Prague World Cup. Georgina Singleton, Faith Pitman, Sally Conway, and Gemma Gibbons will travel to the 2008 Warsaw World Cup.

To qualify the GB spot for Beijing a top 9 placing for men, or a top 5 placing for women, is required at the end of the qualification period (only one spot per country allowed).

The latest European Olympic Qualification Rankings following the weekend’s events can be found below.

-60kg

2nd Craig Fallon

4th James Millar

-73kg

18th Matt Purssey

-81kg

GB spot qualified

-90kg

10th Winston Gordon

-100kg

GB spot qualified

-52kg

12th Georgina Singleton

15 th Sophie Johnstone

-57kg

9th Faith Pitman

-63kg

2nd Sarah Clark

-70kg

8th Sally Conway

20th Samantha Lowe

-78kg

1st Michelle Rogers

+78kg

GB spot qualified

Places above have been calculated by discounting those spots/countries already qualified.

Media Contact:

Emma Griffin

(t) 01509 631692

emmagriffin@britishjudo.org.uk