Adlington scores a silver return as France keep top spot on day two of the London British Open – An EJU Senior European Cup

The Netherlands had a strong final day but France held on to top the London British Open medal table overall, whilst Sarah Adlington won silver on her return for Great Britain at K2, Crawley.

The second day of the European Judo Union (EJU) Senior European Cup event saw the heavyweight athletes take their turn on the tatami.

The best British result of the day came in the women’s +78kg category where Sarah Adlington took a silver medal after being thrown by Rebecca Ramainich of France in the final for ippon. The competition was Adlington’s first event in over a year due to injury, with her last competition being the 2012 European Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Fellow Brit Rebecca Telfer took a fifth place in the category, losing the bronze medal contest to Tania Terrera of Italy. Tessie Savelkouls of the Netherlands won the other bronze.

There was also British success in the -63kg category, where Faith Pitman overcame Estonia’s Julia Bezko by a yuko to win bronze. Jennifer Wichers of the Netherlands won gold, defeating Austria’s Marlies Priesner in the final. Clementine Louchez of France won the remaining bronze.

In the men’s -90kg category GB took a bronze and a fifth place through Michael Horley and Frazer Chamberlain respectively. Horley lost in the semi-final to eventual gold medallist Lorenzo Bagnoli of Italy before defeating Switzerland’s Domenic Wenzinger to take bronze. Frazer Chamberlain made the semi-finals losing to silver medallist Fabio Miranda of Italy and then suffered defeat by ippon to German athlete Aaron Hildebrand to finish fifth.

Olympian Chris Sherrington delivered Great Britain’s final medal of the day in the +100kg category. The Royal Marine held down Israel’s Asaf Zohar for ippon to clinch a bronze medal at the weight. Dutch athlete Roy Meyer won the gold with a sublime throw for ippon over Daniel Allerstorfer of Austria. Poland’s Kamil Grabowski won the remaining bronze.

Owen Livesey lost to Germany’s Sven Maresch in the -81kg bronze medal contest to take fifth. Another German, Faruch Bulekulom beat Massimilliano Carollo of Italy to win gold with Russia’s Aleksei Fetisov claiming bronze.

Another fifth place was gained in the women’s -78kg where Scarlett Woolcock couldn’t overcome bronze medallist Martine Demikes of the Netherlands and had to settle for fifth. The final was an all-Netherlands affair with Iris Lemmen overcoming Linda Boers to win gold. Majorie Ulrich of France also took a bronze.

In the -70kg it was gold for Belgium as Roxane Taeymens beat Italy’s Guilia Cantoni in the final. Germany got both bronze through Melanie Gerber and Anne Ritt.

The men’s -100kg saw Vincenzo D Arco of Italy overcome Russia’s Aleksandr Dankov in a tough final. Swiss athlete Flavio Orlik and the Netherland’s Remco Van Den Brink won the bronze medals.