GB Masters judoka enjoyed great success at the 2017 Veteran European Judo Championships, Thursday 15 – Sunday 18 June, in Zagreb winning 12 medals in total including four golds.
This was an improvement on last year’s medal haul of eight and reward for a lot of hard work put in by our Masters judoka. All four gold medals came on the Saturday and were won by our female judoka with Kay Andrews backing up her gold medal from last year with two ippon wins in the F6 +78kg category against Ayse Kayali (TUR) and Gabriele Nuernberger (GER).
She was joined on the podium that day by Fiona Chan (F3 -57kg), who had to defeat France’s Marie-Helene Quetey in golden score to secure gold, Samantha Craniuk (F2 -63kg) and Joyce Malley (F7 -70kg).
Malley was in dominant form winning both her contests against Francoise Dufresne (FRA) and Angela Tassi (ITA) by ippon. This was also Malley’s first Veteran Europeans gold since 2014.
Craniuk made short work of her first two opponents in Audren Guilbaud (FRA) and Daniela Kortmann (GER), winning both contests by ippon. Her final however was a much tighter affair with just a single score against Ludivine Javelle (FRA) separating the pair.
They were also joined the podium that day by Caroline Rawlings (F2 -57kg) and Ronda Crampton Reid (F3 +78kg), both of whom picked up bronze medals. Both judoka had also won bronze medals at the World Masters last year.
On the first day of competition (Thursday 15) it was the turn of the men’s judoka to get things underway and they made a strong start winning six medals, two silver and four bronze.
Terence Watt (M0 -90kg) just missed out on defending his European title, losing his first contest to France’s Andre Clauzon but he recovered well to win his next two contests and secured silver.
Kyle Perry (M1 -66kg) backed up his silver from last year losing but just a single score in the final to Raimondo Degortes (ITA).
There were also bronze medals on day one for Stan Cantrill (M0 -73kg), Kenneth Jones (M0 -73kg), Kevin Kinneu (M6 -90kg) and Thomas Moyse (M8 -90kg)
The GB Masters focus will now turn to the Veterans World Championships in Olbia, Italy from 30 September to 3 October.
