Today saw the first day of the European Cadet Championships in the Polish capital, Warsaw. Five young British Judo athletes were in action against some of Europe’s top youth judo talent.

The best British Judo performer was England’s Harry Zain-Prosser (-60kg). After a bye in the opening round he defeated world number 52, Styopa Darbinyan of Armenia in round 2 to set up a 3^rd round match against world number 2, Russia’s Rizvan Magomadov. Unfortunately for Zain-Prosser the Russian was just too much on this occasion, but entering the competition with a world ranking of 79 he can certainly be proud of his achievements as he took full advantage of the opportunity handed to him and can take great confidence from his opening victory against a higher ranked athlete. Magomadov eventually went on to claim bronze in the finals.

Artur Patemian (-55kg) was drawn against Belgium’s Robbe Demets, an athlete ranked just 18 places ahead of the Scottish athlete. In a very close match with each athlete giving very little away, it was the Belgium athlete that was able to force a winning score to defeat Patemian.

Mae Bostock (-48kg) faced Dutch athlete Renee Maas in her opening round, with only 15 places in the world rankings between them it was always going to be a closely contested match. Unfortunately for Bostock her Dutch opponent came out victorious on this occasion.

Zachary Morrison (-55kg) was drawn against an athlete ranked a staggering 79 places ahead of him in the world rankings in his opening round. This did not deter the Englishman as he gave his Hungarian opponent, Dominik Pomazi, a scare early on in the match, but the experience of he Hungarian saw him prevail late on.

Scotland’s Dougie Fleming (-50kg), making his international debut at the Championships, found himself drawn against a much more experienced opponent in Serbia’s Ivan Ledjanski. The experience of the Serbian showed as Fleming was unable to match his opponent and was eliminated in the opening round.

Friday is another busy day with Tatum Keen (-52kg), Niamh Southgate (-52kg), Isobel kitchen (-57kg), Leah Grosvenor (-57kg), Grace Griffith (-63kg), Ethan Nairne (-66kg), Shaun Malazarte (-66kg) Ryan Rijksen-Salman (-73kg) and David Somerville (-73kg) all in action.