Newly crowned 2015 Senior Player of the Year, Ben FLETCHER, struck gold in Mauritius after defeating Switzerland’s Patrick MOSER in the final of the -100kg category at the African Open in Port Louis.

Fletcher was amongst five British medallists with silver medals for Nathon Burns (-66kg) and Owen Livesey (-81kg) and bronze medals for Kim Renicks (-48kg) and Sarah Adlington (+78kg).

There were also fifth places for Andy Burns (-90kg) and Danny Williams (-73kg) while George Smith (-90kg) and Patrick Dawson (-73kg) both claimed 7th places.

Fletcher started out his day with a waza-ari win against Turkish opponent, Ali ERDOGAN. Serbian Stefan JURISIC was the Fletcher’s second opponent who, along with his semi-final match up Domenico DI GUIDA of Italy, was defeated with an ippon win for the British player.

The -100kg final went the full distance with Fletcher coming out the eventual winner over Switzerland’s Patrick MOSER with both a waza-ari and yuko on the scoreboard at the end of the contest.

Fletcher’s gold medal on Sunday marked his second time on top of the podium in Africa this year, after winning the Tunisian African Open in January.

Fletcher said: “It was great to be back on the top of the podium. I had chosen to do this event because I felt there was the opportunity to get some good ranking points out here and it was great to get the job done and do what I set out to do.

“I have Sydney [Oceania Open] this week which I hope to do the same.”

Owen Livesey, who was also in the medals with silver in the -81kg category, added: “It was good to come away with a medal. It was the first of three competitions on this tour, so to start it with a medal was good and obviously more points towards Rio qualification. On to Australia [for the Oceania Open] now where I can hopefully go one better.”

British players will next be in action at the Oceania Open in Wollongong, Australia on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th November, alongside the u23 European Judo Championships which will take place 13-15th November in Bratislava, Slovakia.