GB Visually Impaired Squad Aim High in Hungary

Great Britain’s Visually Impaired (VI) judo squad will be looking to continue their success this week as eight athletes, including two Paralympians head to Hungary to compete in the Visually Impaired 2013 European Championships and World Junior Games in Eger near Budapest.

London 2012 Silver medallist Sam Ingram will lead the way for GB, competing at -90kg. It will be Sam’s first VI competition for some time, having more recently competed in a number of fully sighted European Cup events.

Fellow Paralympian Marc Powell will be competing at -73kg with 2013 US VI Open winner Jonathan Drane looking to follow up his stateside victory with Gold in Hungary.

Gavin Towers who also took a bronze in the states in July will be hoping to put in another strong performance and come away with a European medal.

Christopher Skelley will have a busy week as he competes in both the senior competition (-100kg) and the juniors in the +90kg category.

Great Britain will also be represented in the women’s junior competition with Natalie Greenhough taking to the tatami at -70kg, Britain’s first female VI international representative since Lesley Reid.

Looking forward to the competition, Paralympic Coach Jean-Paul Bell said: “It looks like its going to be a very busy event with Russia having a large delegation as always and being the start of a cycle there’s a lot of new faces.

“There are also lots of Paralympic medallists here but we have a strong and well prepared team who are all in good spirits and looking forward to the event.”