A young Great Britain women’s team missed out on a bronze medal, claiming a fifth place finish at the European Teams Championship on the final day of action in Montpellier, France.

The teams championship follow three days of competition as the best judoka on the continent came together in the quest to become 2014 European Champion.

After drawing Russia in the first round, Great Britain struggled to get a hold in the tie, losing the first three contests before Megan Fletcher beat Gazieva by yuko to salvage a point.
However, Jodie Myers was unable to overcome Chibisova, meaning a 4-1 win for Russia and GB having to settle for a place in the repechage.

There, they faced Hungary. GB started well with Kelly Edwards throwing Keller for waza-ari before holding her down for ippon. This was followed up with a narrow victory by Connie Ramsay as she beat Szabo by a single shido. Hungary then managed to draw level with Jodie Mullen and Megan Fletcher both losing out to their opponents. However, Hungary fielded just four athletes and Jodie Myers took the deciding point unopposed to book a place in the bronze medal contest.

A strong Slovenian team stood between the GB team and the medal rostrum and despite some promising performances, the team had to settle for fifth as the Slovenians won 5-0.

The men had a tight first round tie against the Czech Republic. Nathon Burns narrowly lost the first contest by a yuko, but Patrick Dawson put in an impressive display to win by waza-ari and level the scores. Two waza-ari gave Musil an ippon win over Owen Livesey at -81kg before Gary Hall dominated his contests against Krpalek, scoring yuko, waza-ari and finally a big ippon to bring the tie down to the final round. Chris Sherrington faced Horak but an early waza-ari proved enough to secure a 3-2 win for the Czech Republic and eliminate Great Britain from the competition.

In yesterday’s individual event, Welsh judoka Natalie Powell suffered an early exit. She came into the event seeded, but drew reigning European Champion Lucie Louette in the first round in another contest that was decided by shidos, with Powell ultimately receiving hansoku make.