British players top the medal table in Wollongong at the Oceania Open

It was a successful trip down under for the British players competing in the Oceania Open at the WIN Sports & Entertainment Centre in Wollongong, as they collected eight medals over the two day competition.

Nathon Burns claimed his first gold of the year at this level, after picking up silver medals at two Pan American Opens, as well as at the British Open in July and the African Open last weekend. Burns progressed through his three contests on route to the final, winning by ippon on each occasion, before defeating African senior champion, Houd Zourdani, on penalties in the final. He was joined on the rostrum by Lewis Keeble who came through a tough draw to secure a well deserved bronze medal.

On day two, Megan Fletcher and Sarah Adlington also put themselves on top of the podium, taking home gold medals in the -70kg and +78kg categories respectively. Fletcher defeated American, Kathleen Sell, in the -70kg final, winning all three of her contests by ippon. Adlington had two contests in the +78kg category, defeating Nina Curto-Kelly in the final after also defeating Rauhiti Vernaudon of French Polynesia.

Danny Williams was also in the medals, taking silver in the -73kg category. Defeating his first three opponents, Williams progressed to the final to face Italian Marco Maddaloni, who came out the eventual winner leaving Williams to claim the silver medal.

In the same category Jan Gosiewski claimed a bronze medal, defeating compatriot Patrick Dawson in the bronze medal contest.

Owen Livesey claimed his second silver medal in the space of a week, narrowly missing out on gold after losing out to Emirhan Yucel in the -81kg final.

Kim Renicks (-48kg) backed up her bronze medal performance at last week’s African Open with another bronze medal here, this time defeating American, Anne Suzuki to take the medal.

Frazer Chamberlain and George Smith both placed in the -90kg category, with 5th and 7th places respectively.

British players will next be in action at the Judo Grand Prix, Qingdao 20-22nd November.