British judoka ready for Sofia

Eleven British judoka are in action this weekend in Sofia, Bulgaria at the first European Open of the year.

The 11 includes a mix of players looking to gain valuable Rio Olympic qualifications points and others aiming to gain valuable experience with Tokyo 2020 a long-term focus.

Eight of the team are in action on Saturday 30 January including 2015 Under-23 and Junior European champions Amy Livesey (-63kg) and Lucy Renshall (-63kg). They are joined in the -63kg category by Lubjana Piovesana.

Patrick Dawson and Jan Gosiewski are both looking to take an important step on the Road to Rio at -73kg while Gregg Varey (-66kg) will be aiming for his first European Continental Open medal.

Bekky Livesey (-57kg) joins her older sister Amy on the tatami on Saturday while Kim Renicks (-48kg) continues her push for Olympic qualification.

Sunday 31 January will see three more British judoka competing with Jemima Yeats-Brown (-70kg) looking for a first Continental medal at her new weight category having previously medalled twice at -63kg.

Philip Awiti-Alcaraz (-100kg), who took a silver and a bronze at two European Opens last year, will be hoping to go one better in Sofia while Sarah Adlington (+78kg) will want to improve on her seventh place finish in Sofia last year.

You can watch all the action live on eju.net from 0800 GMT on both days and follow @BritishJudo on Twitter for end of day results updates