So far it has been quite a year for 16-year-old Lubjana Piovesana from Sutton Coldfield who won a bronze medal at the judo Cadet World Championships was in Miami as part of the British under-18 team.

Not only has Piovesana excelled on the mat, she was awarded Sport Aid Athlete of the Month in August, and has been nominated as a finalist for the Young Sportswoman of the Year Award at the Birmingham Sports Awards 2013 taking place on Thursday 19 September.

Piovesana has had a strong year starting with a silver medal in Harnes, France followed by a gold at the European Cup in Coimbra Portugal in April. She was agonisingly close to a medal at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Utrecht, but a fifth place was enough to secure her seat on the plane to the World Cadets in Miami where she achieved a fabulous result, defeating four of her five opponents in the women’s -63kg category with match-winning ippons; including one, in her final contest against Liudmyla Drozdova from Ukraine, that took just 46 seconds!

She described her ippon result in the Cadet World Championships as “just amazing”, adding, “Everyone thought I would not win a medal so when I kept on winning, it just felt surreal, but great – especially that final ippon. I went onto the mat strong and just thought ‘it’s now or never’.”

The victory was the best possible result for Lubjana after losing a tight semi-final against the top-seed Szabina Cercsak from Hungary, which Szabina won at the very end of a ‘golden score’ period of added time. Bouncing back from this to win the bronze was all the more special for the fact that Lubjana was able to match the success of another SportsAid athlete in the competition, Peter Miles, who had already won his own bronze medal in the men’s -55kg category – defeating the USA’s Adonis Diaz on home soil.

“It was really cool because Pete and I are good friends,” Lubjana added. “For us both to achieve bronze medals is fantastic.”

“My SportsAid Award has helped me a lot this year and without the money I wouldn’t have been able to afford this so I am very grateful for the award. Thank you very much.”

Piovesana’s SportsAid Award comes from the Joanna Brown Trust.

Her father Martin Piovesana said: “Lulu, myself, the family and her coach Phil Hudson at Bishop Challoner where she trains are so over the moon with her being chosen sports aid athlete of the month. It reflects on all of her hard work and dedication to her sport. Both these awards will help with her goal to be an Olympian in 2020 and world champion of the future.”

Proud Coach Phil Hudson added: “Lulu deserves the success as she has the most amazing attitude of anyone I have ever worked with.

“Her work-rate and will to win are fantastic and I have big hopes for her.
“It won’t be Rio in 2016 but I think the Olympic Games in 2020 can be the aim for her.
“She will be 23-24 by then and really on the top of her game.”

Hudson added: “I work in a sports college, so I see lot of athletes but I can say that Lulu is a truly dedicated athlete and everything she touches usually turns to gold. She has been with me since she was nine and fitted right in.”

“Lulu is a very inspirational person. She has just had her GCSE results and gained a stream of A stars, As and Bs,. She really inspires all the other players to do well too. Our club has a strong teamwork ethic.

“On the mat, her groundwork is very sharp and she also has a trademark “Ko Uchi Gari” which she caught a few players with along the way. We were unlucky she lost in the semi-final but even that went to golden score. Once Lulu has got them on the ground, she usually comes out on top.”

She is now stepping up preparations for the 2014 Youth Olympic Championships which take place in Nanjing, China next August.

By Donna Richardson. Photo by Joe Morgan. Team GB.