17 British Judo fighters in action this weekend at the Zagreb European Open

This weekend Croatia welcomes over 480 fighters to the Zagreb European Open, with 17 British fighters in action over the two-day competition on the 1^st-2^nd May.

Saturday 1^st

Gregg Varey heads to Zagreb in superb form, having recently finished 7^th at the Antalya Grand Slam. Joining Varey in the -66kg category are Neil MacDonald, Alexander Short and Joshua Bell.

MacDonald is a former Junior European silver medallist whilst Short was gold medallist at the 2018 Glasgow European Open.

Lele Nairne and Stephanie Walker are both in action in the -57kg. Nairne was the 2018 European U23 silver medallist and represented British Judo at the 2019 World Championships in Tokyo whilst Walker competes for the first time since finishing 5^th at the Dakar African Open in 2019.

In the -60kg category Daniel Rabbitt, Dylan Munro and David Ferguson. Rabbitt, who is still a Junior, and Munro have both represented British Judo at the European Cadet Championships whilst Rabbitt also finished 5^th at the European Youth Olympic Festival back in 2017. Ferguson is a former bronze medallist at the Taipei Asian Open and competes for the first time since the Warsaw European Open back in February 2020.

Jasmine Hacker-Jones, who represented British Judo at the 2019 World Junior Championships competes alongside Gwenllian Northall in the -63kg category. Whilst in the -73kg category Josef Lynch is joined by Oliver Short who makes his senior international debut.

Sunday 2^nd

Former European Junior Cup silver medallist Rachel Tytler (-78kg) is the sole female British representative on the final day of competition. Also in action are Scott Cusack and Daniel Pacitti in the -81kg category. Whilst Cailin Calder will be hoping to reach the podium of the -100kg competition after three 5^th place finishes and four 7^th place finishes at previous European Cup and Open events.

Preliminary Rounds are set to start at 08:00am (BST) on both days, with Final Block scheduled to start at 16:30 (BST). Live streaming will be available on the British Judo homepage.

Due to the British Judo social media boycott there will be no social media activity over the course of the weekend, but British Judo will bring a full round up and report any medal wins on Tuesday morning.