Tough opening day at the Junior European Championships

It was a tough opening day for our fighters at the Junior European Championships with four British Judo fighters in action in the -52kg and -66kg categories.

Tatum Keen faced Buketnur Karabulut (TUR) in the opening round of the -52kg competition. It took Keen less than 30 seconds to defeat the 10^th ranked fighter in one of the throws of the morning to progress to the second round to face top seed Chloe Devictor (FRA).

Sian Bobrowska also made it through her opening round just as comfortably. A waza-ari score early in the contest was followed up with a Hari makikomi to see her into Round 2.

Bobrowska faced the 2018 Cadet European Champion and Youth Olympic Festival bronze medallist Erza Muminoviq (KOS) for a place in the Quarter-Finals.

In the second-round contests Keen was forced to concede to Devictor when she was caught in an armlock whilst Bobrowska was defeated by Muminoviq. Bobrowska escaped from a hold down earlier in the contest but was later thrown for an ippon score.

Finlay Allan could count himself unfortunate to find himself two shidos down to Miha Brence (SLO) in the opening round contest of the -66kg category. However, he did not let this faze him as he capitalised on mistake from Brence with some great groundwork, forcing his opponent to concede.

Allan was then defeated in the second round by Levi Maerkt (GER). A tai otoshi enough to see the German progress to the third round.

Also competing in the -66kg category was Charlie Young who faced 9^th seed and silver medallist at the Prague Junior European Cup, Rashad Guluzade (AZE) in the opening round. It was a well-matched contest with nothing between the two fighters at the end of the mandatory 4 minutes.

As the contest entered Golden Score Young had 2 shidos to Guluzade’s one, meaning Young had to attack to avoid a third shido. Young attacked early but was countered and thrown for ippon by Guluzade.

Max Gregory and Oliver Barratt are next to compete for British Judo as they take to the mat on Saturday in the -100kg category.

Gregory faces Paul Creata (ROU) in his opening round match in Pool C. Whilst in Pool D, Barratt will face Ruslan Nasirli (AZE) in the opening round. Nasirli was a bronze medallist earlier this year at the Coimbra Junior European Cup.

Preliminary rounds start at 10am (BST) on Saturday with Final Block scheduled to start at 15:00 (BST).

British Judo will bring you a recap of how all your British fighters perform each day and you can follow the action on the British Judo social media channels. You can also watch the action live on the British Judo homepage.