Aspiring British Judo athletes enjoyed a hugely successful weekend taking 11 medals at the Coimbra European Cup for Cadets on 13/14 April.

The EJU event, taking place in Portugal, saw some of Europe’s top cadets in competition with GB judoka taking two gold medals, three silver and six bronze.

The women’s -63kg category saw Britain lock out the top two places with Lubjana Piovesana taking gold in a tight contest against Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz in an all-British final. Piovesana had an impressive run to the final, taking victory by ippon in all of her previous contests.

GB also took gold in the women’s -70kg, with Sarah Hill winning all of her contests by ippon including victory over Federica Carta of Italy in the final.

Neil MacDonald narrowly lost out in the final of the men’s -60kg to Alberto Gaitero Martin of Spain to take silver, whilst Charlie Sala-Nairne also took silver in the women’s -57kg category in which Ellish Walker came through the repecharge to win bronze with fellow Brit Jodie Caller who was forced to withdraw from her semi-final due to injury taking fifth.

Peter Miles continued his good form with a bronze medal in the men’s -55kg, with Stuart McWatt (-66kg) and Valentino Volante (+90kg) also taking bronze.

Abbie Blackie recovered from a semi-final defeat in the women’s -52kg to win a bronze medal with Natasha Fraser suffering a narrow defeat in her bronze medal contest to take fifth at the same weight.

Michelle Boyle completed the medal haul, recovering from a first round defeat to fight her way back through the repechage and win bronze.

Two other British athletes took placings, with Dalshawn Honohan and Aristides Aristidou both placing seventh in the men’s -90kg.

The cadets return to action this weekend in the SFJAM Noris European Cadets Cup to be held in Teplice, Czech Republic, an event which is likely to be the largest Cadet European Cup ever hosted.