2013 European Cadet Championship medallist Neil MacDonald (-60kg) scooped another bronze medal at the 2014 event today, adding to last year’s success.

The contest opened today (Friday) at the Olympic stadium in Athens, Greece and will run until Sunday.

Today the British line up also included Olivia Piochota (-40kg) of Greenwich (Harris Judo Club), Molly Harvey(-40kg) of Tonbridge, Aimee Grant (-48kg) of Highland Budokan, Connor Potts (-50kg) of Selby (Goole Judo Club), Scott Thompson (-55kg) of Danderhall/Destination and Daniel Powell (-60kg) of Wolverhampton Judo Club. However, they all exited in their first rounds, leaving the Scotsman to be the only one to progress and medal.

MacDonald from SJCA club sent Great Britain off to a flying start by throwing Mark Altosar of Estonia for ippon and went through to the semi final having beaten Maik Dittrich of Germany by ippon and Asim Mamyedov of Ukraine by yuko with 15 seconds to go.

This set up the semi-final against Romaric Wend Yam Bouda of France which he lost by waza-ari.
“I’m really happy. To get another bronze medal at the European Cadet Championships for the second year running is unbelieveable. This is my best achievement to date and it’s my last cadet tournament.”

Matt Divall, GB Leader said: “Neil’s semi-final a superb example of fight management and what to do when under pressure of a penalty down. Unfortunately, everyone else who fought today went out. Little mistakes under pressure cost you dearly at this level.”