11 British Judo fighters in action at the Prague European Open

This weekend the Czech Republic plays host to the Prague European Open. With 300 fighters scheduled to compete at the UNYP Arena Sparta over the two-day event, 11 British Judo fighters will be looking for a positive return to competition in the Czech capital.

The British Judo fighters selected to compete all have hopes of European selection later this year and this European Open offers them all the chance to return to competition for the first time since lockdown began in 2020.

Josh Giles (-60kg) makes his senior debut in Prague following a 2019 season that saw him take bronze at the Paks European Junior Cup and compete at both the European and World Junior Championships.

Scott Thomson competes in the -66kg category alongside Charlie Young. Thomson was a bronze medallist back in 2019 at the Cluj-Napoca European Open while 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival 5^th place fighter Young, makes his senior debut in Prague.

Former European U23 Championship bronze medallist, Daniel Powell (-73kg), competes almost 12months to the day since his last competition. Powell, who is a multiple medallist at Junior European Cup level, has a European Open career best finish of 7^th, at the Sofia European Open back in 2018.

2019 European Junior Championship bronze medallist Lachlan Moorhead (-81kg), whilst still eligible to compete in the junior category, makes his senior debut. Moorhead is no stranger to European competition taking bronze medals at both the Kaunas and Coimbra Junior European Cups in 2019.

The -100kg category features three British Judo fighters, Oliver Barratt, Harry Lovell-Hewitt and Max Gregory.

Barratt made his senior debut back in November 2019 taking bronze at the Dakar African Open, which incidentally was his last competition.

Lovell-Hewitt competes for the first time in nearly two years following injury. He won silver at the Odivelas European Open in 2019 and is a multiple medallist at Junior European Cups.

Gregory is another junior fighter making his senior debut, but has vast experience competing at European competitions having fought at Cadet and Junior European Cups.

Sian Bobrowska steps up to the -52kg category, making her senior debut. In 2019 Bobrowska competed at both the World and European Junior Championships following a bronze medal at the Paks Junior European Cup and three 5^th place finishes at the Kaunas, Leibnitz and Prague Junior European Cups.

In the -78kg category former World Junior Championship bronze medallist, Shelley Ludford is joined by Emma Reid.

Both fighters had positive starts to the 2020 season with Ludford taking bronze at the Warsaw European Open while Reid claimed bronze at the Odivelas European Open before winning silver at the Bratislava European Open.

Action in Prague is scheduled to start at 08:00am (GMT) on both days of competition and British Judo will bring you a round up of how the British Judo fighters perform on our social media pages at the end of each day.