Nairne 7th at European u23 Championships
On the opening day of the European U23 Championships in Sarajevo, Ethan Nairne produced some incredible throws en route to finishing 7th.
Competing in the -73kg category, Nairne (Club: Bradley Stoke; Coach: Pete Douglas) produced a throw for ippon score to defeat 2021 Antalya Grand Slam silver medallist Bayram Kandemir (TUR) in the opening round. Nairne then followed this up with a Round 2 victory against Daniel Szegedi (HUN) – a waza-ari score enough to progress – before producing another spectacular throw for ippon score against Nariman Mirzayev (AZE) to progress to the Quarter-Finals to face Joan-Benjamin Gaba (FRA).
Defeat to Portugal Grand Slam silver medallist Gaba progressed Nairne to the Repechage where he was defeated by 2021 European Junior Championship bronze medallist Javier Pena-Insausti (ESP) to finish 7th.
Elsewhere on the opening day there were opening round victories for Charlie Young (Ryecroft Judokwai; Paul Young) and Sian Bobrowska (Hardy Spicer; Fitzroy Davies).
Young (Ryecroft Judokwai; Paul Young) defeated Diego Alvaz-Duarte (ESP) in the opening round before being defeated by 2021 Paris Grand Slam bronze medallist Orlando Cazorla (FRA) in Round 2.
Meanwhile, Bobrowska (Hardy Spicer; Fitzroy Davies) defeated Alessia Tedeschi (ITA) in the opening round of her -52kg contest. A waza-ari score down, Bobrowska applied a strangle to force her opponent to tap out. Bobrowska was defeated by Roza Gyertyaz (HUN) in the second round. Gyertyaz forced Bobrowska to tap out in newaza.
Tatum Keen (Bradley Stoke; Pete Douglas) had an opening-round bye before her second-round contest against Aydan Valiyeva (AZE). With the score level at the end of 4-minutes the contest entered Golden Score where Valiyeva registered a waza-ari score in the opening exchange to progress.
Finlay Allan (Camberley; Luke Preston) was defeated by Artyom Ghalachyan (ARM) in the opening round. Ghalachyan registered a waza-ari with just 10-seconds of the contest remaining.
Tomorrow will see Ryan Rijksen-Salman (Bradley Stoke; Pete Douglas) and Oliver Barratt (Dragons Judo Academy; Stephen Abberley) in action in the -90kg and -100kg categories respectively.
Preliminary Round action will start at 09:30am(BST) and Final Block will start at 15:00.
