Sarah Adlington (+78kg) and Faith Pitman (-63kg) clinched two gold medals for Great Britain at the Pan-American Open San Salvador 2013 last weekend.

British Champion Faith Pitman defeated three Latin American competitors charging to golden glory with two ippons – one against Mexican Andrea Gutierrez and the other against Venezuelan Wisneybi Machado. In the final bout she won by waza-ari against Brazilian Mariana Silva.

Meanwhile, Adlington, a former European double bronze medallist, also smashed her way to victory with two stunning ippons – the first in the opening round against Australia’s Stephanie Grant and the second in the final bout against Venezuela’s Giovanni Blanco, completing a third win at this level of competition. She has already won two World Cups (equivalent to a continental Open) a year apart in Birmingham between 2008 and 2009.

London 2012 Olympian Colin Oates (-66kg) who made a comeback in Miami following injury ended the week with a silver medal in El Salvador. Winning his first, second and third bouts by ippon against Venezuelan Sergio Mattey, Bradford Bolen of the USA and Luiz Revite of Brazil but was thrown for ippon by another Brazilian Charles Chibana in the final.

The other silver was won by fellow Olympian Daniel Williams (-73kg). He scored ippon against Lwilli Santana of the Dominican Republic before going on to beat Fernando Ibanez of Equador and Canadian Michael Fortin Demars. He was beaten to gold by Belgian Dirk Van Tichelt who threw him for ippon.

The Renicks sisters – Kimberley (-48kg) and Louise (-52 kg) both took bronze – as did Matthew Purssey (-90kg)and Patrick Dawson (-73kg). All improved upon their performances in the IJF Miami Grand Prix following a week at the Florida training camp organised post Miami.

Meanwhile, Matthew Clempner (+100kg), Nathon Burns (-66kg) and Stephanie Inglis (-57kg) all placed fifth. Jodie Mullen (-63kg) finished a solid seventh.

Words by Donna Richardson.