British judoka made an excellent start on the 2014 European Open circuit as two Scotsmen took gold and bronze medals this weekend in Sofia, Bulgaria while another pair secured seventh place finishes.

Patrick Dawson took gained his first victory at this level on European soil, with a narrow win over Sagi Muki of Israel on Saturday in Bulgaria to equal his result at the Pan American Continental Open in 2013. His path to gold involved ippons all the way until the semi-final against Tommy Macias (Sweden), Sam Van T Westende of the Netherlands and Ulai Kurzhev of Russia.

In the final, Dawson then edged to victory with two shidos to one over three-time World Cup winner Muki, ranked 25 in the world.

“I am really happy to get back on the rostrum for a world cup event because I have not gained the results I wanted to in other European Cups,” he said.

“I‘m glad to be fighting well again, the Russian was a wildcard, but I was pleased to beat my nemesis in the final, especially since he is quite high up the world ranking list.

“Now I would like to build on this performance in the run up to the Commonwealth Games.”

In preparation for this, Dawson, who currently sits at 43 on the WRL, will be focussing on the Pan American Open in Uruguay and Argentina where he hopes to complete a hat-trick.

Andrew Burns gained bronze on Sunday, beating Mihal Zgank of Slovenia.

His journey began with two successive ippons against Kazakh and Slovenian opponents Alibek Zekenov and David Kukovica followed by a waza-ari win against Ryan Dil-Russell of New-Zealand.

This earned him a place in the -90kg semi final, which he lost by a waza-ari and yuko against Alon Sasson, a strong Israeli. He soon bounced back to beat Miheal Zgank of Slovenia in the battle for bronze.

Burns commented: “I am really happy with my bronze medal result, and most of all I am pleased with my performance as I spent most of 2013 out injured with a torn groin.

“I am really pleased to be back competing on the international stage and winning so early on in the year.

“Now I am hoping to continue to improve by gaining more results this year.”

The tournament also saw Michael Horley and Sarah Clark achieve solid seventh place finishes.

Clark (-63kg) started well with an early ippon victory over Emma Barkeling Pettersson, but lost the next two matches. Meanwhile, Horley (-90kg) scored an ippon and a waza-ari in the first two matches but lost the final two bouts.

Elsewhere, James Austin (-100kg) exited in the first round to Predrag Budic with his opponent having the home advantage, while heavyweight Chris Sherrington (+100kg) was beaten early by the eventual bronze medallist Oleksandr Gordiienko of Ukraine.

The Sofia tournament provided useful practice and a warm up to a busy year featuring the Commonwealth Games in July and the start of the Olympic Qualification period from May.

Next destination for British Judo athletes is the International Judo Federation (IJF) Paris Grand Slam on 8 and 9 February.

Following this the next important dates on the European calendar will be for the Rome for women and Oberwart, Austria for men on the weekend of 22-23 February.

Words by Donna Richardson. Photos EJU.