Skelley and Hodgson take strides towards Rio Paralympics

Both Chris Skelley and Jack Hodgson took strides towards Rio 2016 Paralympic qualification today (27 November) at the Visually Impaired European Judo Championships as the pair claimed bronze medals.

Chris Skelley (-100kg) started the day with a win over Theoklitos Papachristos (GRE), using strong ne-waza skills to claim the victory.

Moving into the semi-final, Skelley came up against Abdula Kuramagomedov (RUS) the 2014 World Champion. The Russian was matched at every turn by Skelley. At one penalty up and with just a second to go, the British judoka looked set for the final but for a last second yuko scoring throw securing a final place for Kuramagomedov and saw Skelley head for the bronze medal contest.

Skelley faced Turkish fighter, Ibrahim Bolukbasi for the bronze medal. In less than 30 seconds the contest was over with Skelley throwing for ippon and taking the victory in spectacular fashion.

Jack Hodgson faced Dursun Hayran of Turkey in his first round contest. He saw off the Turkish fighter with a throw for ippon, which put him through to the semi-final where he came up against Vilham Zakiye (AZE). It was a tough contest which saw Zakiye, the defending European champion and two-time Paralympic and World champion, pick up two penalties before throwing Hodgson for waza-ari and then claiming the victory with a hold down.

The bronze medal was within reach for Hodgson as he faced off against Frenchman Julien Taurines. The contest was over in less than minute with Hodgson throwing explosively for two waza-ari scores to take the win.

Day two of the competition will see two-time Paralympian Sam Ingram (-90kg) take to the tatami as defending champion having won the last two European Championships.

A third European title would set him in good stead for the Rio 2016, where he hopes to improve upon silver from London 2012 and bronze from Beijing 2008.

In the -70kg category, Crawley’s Natalie Greenhough will also be stepping on the mat tomorrow as she hopes to take her first major championship medal at senior level having previously won gold at the 2013 Junior World Games in Eger, Hungary.

The competition will be streamed live on http://www.randori.pt/TV/ from 10.30am local time each day and you can follow @BritishJudo on Twitter for live updates and behind the scenes photos.