On an exciting weekend of competition for GB Judo, Wesley Greenidge won a Gold medal in the +100kg at the Junior European Judo Cup in La Coruna (ESP) to ensure a sweep of medals for the senior and junior squad.

Following landmark medals for both Amy Livesey and Natalie Powell at the Yekaterinburg Grand Slam, Greenidge was able to work his way through the +100kg weight category to register GB Judo’s third medal of the weekend.

Backing up his silver medal performance in Coimbra, he was able to better his performance from the same competition last year where he came away with a bronze medal.

Following a bye in the opening round, Greenidge came up against Spaniard Guillermo Cordero Rodriguez, in which he comfortably despatched in the final minute of the contest via an ippon finish.

In the final he came up against French judoka Palthi Munzimbu Mena. It was an accomplished performance as Greenidge kept his opponent scoreless throughout as he won gold with 90 seconds remaining on the clock.

There was also a bronze medal for Shelley Ludford in the -70kg competition. It is the second time she has placed in Junior competition this season following a 5th place in Coimbra in March.

Following a defeat in her opening round contest against Russian Madina Taimazova, Ludford recovered impressively from the set back as she swept aside Filipa Sousa (POR) in the repechage with an ippon victory inside the opening minute.

This meant that Ludford would be competing for bronze against Swedens Amanda Hakansson, an opponent that she hasn’t face before, in the Final Block in the afternoon. It was the perfect performance from Shelley in the Final as she scored with two waza-aris and followed it up with an ippon finish to claim the bronze medal.

Elsewhere there were notable performances from the squad with 5th placed finishes for Cailin Calder (-100kg) and Stephanie Walker (-57kg). Welsh judoka Walker had six fights on the day in a strong -57kg category and lost a very close bronze medal match to Belgium’s Mina Libeer in golden score as she conceded a second shido.

There was also a 7th placed finish for Joshua Giles (-55kg), and 9th placed finishes for Michael Fryer (-60kg), James Hayes (-81kg) and Tomas Luckus (-90kg).

GB Judo Juniors will next be in action at the Leibnitz Junior European Cup in Austria 3 – 4 June