The first ever Veteran Europeans (previously called as Masters) took place twelve years ago and was held in Kecskemet, Hungary. This year the Championships returns to it’s birth place, Hungary, with a changing of the hosting city, named Balatonfured. 

Day one brought 28 gold medalist to be awarded across six age divisions (M5-M10) at the Balaton Kozpont Sport Arena. The Russian team set the target after winning eight of the total number of victories.

Great Britain’s quartet involved Clive Biggs (M6-u66kg), Stanly Cantrill (M10-u73kg), Andrew Thomson (M6-u66kg) and Terence Watt (M8-u90kg). The team will return with a bronze and a fifth place from the tournament. Watt started off the day against Stanislav Logashenko (UKR) who he previously met three occasions. “I fought with him three times and I defeated him three times, but today didn’t go according to plan”, said Watt. “This is Judo and I am please to win a bronze medal”, he added. Manfred Donath (GER) was the next opponent to defeat in order to move towards onto the podium, who Watt overcome by Ippon. In the bronze medal contest he was up against Petr Kolar (CZE) who he thrown with a breathtaking right sided harai-goshi put himself on the list amongst the medal winners.

Lubomir Sindelar (CZE) overcome Andrew Thomson in the first round of the M6-u66kg category, however the British fighter soon bounced back in the repechage by defeating Pusztai Jozsef (HUN). For bronze Thomson put a great effort in however his opponent, Vitaly Yuzhakov (UKR) had the final say on who is taking the bronze medal home. Honourable fifth place earned by Thomson. 

The term M indicates for Male and the number describes the age group. The same applies for F=female. The full schedule of the tournament can be viewed on http://www.eju.net/?portalId=87&id=2051

Tomorrow will bring actions from the M3 and M4 age division. The competition will begin at 10:30am. You can follow all the live actions via http://www.eju.net/calendar/?mode=showLiveTransmission&id=2051