EyOF Day Three. Team GB Judoka fight against some of the best in Europe and bring home two fifth place finishes

Team GB girls Lubjana Piovesana (-70kg) and Sarah Hill (-63kg) both finished fifth after reaching the bronze medal contest on day three of the European Youth Olympic Festival (EyOF).

Although relatively new to the European circuit, European Cadet Cup winner (U17) Sarah Hill fought Aleksandra Samardzic of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BIH) for the bronze medal, but lost by ippon.

She won her opening bout against Belarusian Yana Reneiskaya by ippon, guaranteeing her place in the quarter finals against top seed Brigita Matic. It was a tough contest for Sarah, sitting 13 places below her rival in the EJU Cadet Rankings list as she lost by ippon to the European Cadet Champion and European Junior Silver medalist.

She then went on in the repechage to score a stunning ippon against Slovenian National Cadet Champion Nastja Stopernik.

Lubjana Piovesana also finished fifth after losing out on bronze to two-time European Cadet Cup winner Croatian Buga Kovac by a single shido.

She won her opening bout against German Lara Reimann by yuko and then went on to score a second victory by ippon against Israeli Paz Liebel in the quarter final but was ambushed in the semi’s by European Champion (U17) Szabina Gercsak of Hungary who threw her for ippon.

The boys, exited in the early rounds after each of them faced tough competition.

Jamal Petgrave (-81kg) in particular faced the European number 4 Domonik Druzeta who scored ippon.

Enrico Atkinson (-73kg) also exited early after losing by wazari to Spaniard Mendiola Izquieta.

Words by Donna Richardson.