GB Judo Preview: 11 – 12 August 2018

A small squad of four junior athletes will take to the mat in Romania over the weekend as they compete in the Cluj-Napoca Junior European Cup.

Daniel Rabbitt (-60kg) will be the sole GB male athlete competing in a 200-strong male line up.

Rabbitt is looking to find his feet at junior level competition following the step up from Cadet level. His previous appearance on the mat came back in March at the Coimbra Junior European Cup in which he was eliminated in the opening round. A stand out performance for the youngster came at the EYOF last year whereby he narrowly missed out on a bronze medal. He will be hoping to make his mark in this competition and bring home his first junior medal.

Jamie-Leigh Whitaker (-44kg) currently is in a rich vein of form which has seen her pick up two impressive silver medals over the past couple of months at the Kaunas and Gdynia Junior European Cup. She will be looking to bounce back after a disappointing first round defeat in the Berlin European Cup last time out.

Olivia Piechota (52kg) has had a year of near-misses following three fifth placed finishes in junior competition. She has finished just outside of the medal places at Kaunas, Gdynia and the notoriously competitive Gdynia so she will be hoping to go one better this time round and bring home a medal.

She is joined in the -52kg by Molly Harvey who previously defeated Piechota to claim a bronze medal at the Kaunas European Cup. She has several junior podium finishes to her name but will be hoping to avoid another all-British encounter in Romania.

Stay tuned to the British Judo social media channels for end of play medal updates throughout the weekend.