Seventh for Emily Cooper at Cadet Europeans

Emily Cooper’s seventh was the standout performance for GB Judo on Friday 29 June at the 2018 Cadet European Judo Championships in Sarajevo.

The -63kg judoka made a strong start seeing off home judoka Josipa Brvenik (BHI) in the first round before getting the better of Germany’s Dewi De Vries to book a place in the quarter-finals.

Italy’s Martina Lanini was too good in the quarters which forced Cooper into the repechage where an injury during the contest to Jelena Tasic (SRB) gave the British judoka a spot in the repechage final against Alessia Corrao (BEL).

The British fighter dominated large parts of the contests and came close to scoring on a number of occasions. The contest went into golden score with the Belgian down by two shidos, however she spotted an opportunity in newaza to apply juji-gatame and take the win.

Cooper’s fellow -63kg judoka Mollie Game also made into the quarter-finals with wins over Anastasiia Melnyk (UKR) and Laura Haberstock (FRA).

There she lost out to Tatiana Guzun (RUS) with the Russian forcing Game to pick up three shidos. The British judoka has opportunity to continue through the repechage but couldn’t get the better of Germany’s Friederike Stolze.

Hannah Wood (-52kg) defeated Panagiota Kaisopoulou (GRE) in the first round but was unable to come out for the later contests after picking up a knock.

At -57kg Darcie Hancocks saw off the challenge of Alexe Wagemaker (NED) in the first round. In the second round she came up against current Cadet World champion Brigitta Varga (HUN) and the Hungarian was too good as she beat the British judoka by ippon.

-73kg duo of Cameron Charles and Ryan Quigley both made it through their first contests against Edi Sherifovski (MKD) and Mateusz Kozlowski (POL) respectively.

However the British judoka came up against strong opposition in the second round in the form of Koen Heg (NED) and Armen Movsisjan (EST). Charles lost out to the Dutch judoka while Quigley lost a close and exciting contest to Movsisjan.

Tatum Keen (-52kg) lost out to Belgium’s Beau Ramaekers in her first contest as did Leah Grosvenor (-57kg) to Malin Fischer (GER).

Saturday 30 June will be the final day of individual competition in Sarajeveo with three British judoka in action:

-90kg Oliver Barratt

-90kg Max Gregory

+90kg Beau Farrance

Competition starts 0900 UK time with live stream via eju.net and the British Judo website. Follow @BritishJudo on Twitter for end of prelim and end of day results updates.