British cadets in European action this weekend in Estonia

Today and this weekend sees Great Britain in action at the European Judo Union (EJU) European Cadet Championships in Tallinn, Estonia – the scene of the Men’s European Championships a fortnight ago.

A team of 17 GB judoka from England and Scotland have flown out to Estonia for the three-day BJA selected event.

The team includes Peter Miles (-55kg) who recently won the EJU European Cup for U21s in Kaunas and has two bronze wins this year from Teplice and Coimbra Cups.

Three-time British Champion Eric Ham (-55kg) will be hoping for another win, this time at European level, while John Jayne (-90kg) already has two European Cups under his belt in Kiev and Teplice.

Two time winner of the British Championships Enrico Atkinson (-73kg) also joins Neil MacDonald (-60kg) who is the winner of this year’s British Cadet Championships, silver medallist in the EJU European Cup Cadets (ECC) in Combria and British Championships bronze medallist and Jamal Petgrave British Cadet Championships (16-18) gold medallist and winner of the U17 Open International in Doremieux.

The girls team consist of bronze European Cup Cadet medallist Olivia Piechota (-40kg) , fellow bronze ECC medallist Abbi Blackie (-52kg), Silver National Championships medallist Natasha Fraser (-52kg), ECC champion Jodie Caller (-57kg), Silver medallist in the British Championships Elish Walker (-57kg), Gold European Cup Medallist Ljubljana Piovesana (-63kg) Gold Venray International Medallist Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz (-63kg) and Gold European Cup Cadet Sarah Hill (-70kg).

Scottish Michelle Boyle, fresh from a gold win at Venray International will fight for England along with bronze ECC medallist Stuart McWatt (-66kg) and Valentino Volante (+90kg), who is also a bronze ECC Medallist and bronze Venray International medallist.

“Everyone deserves their place here,” said England Programme Manager Matt Divall.
“We have some great talent on the team and going forwards we are hoping for some good performances.”

Some of these players will go on to represent Great Britain in the Youth Olympics in Holland on 14 to 19 July.

Words by Donna Richardson.