GB Judo Team Announcement: 2018 European Judo Championships

Following the second round of selections British Judo have named a 12-strong team for the 2018 European Judo Championships in Tel Aviv, Israel (26 – 28 April). 

Kim Renicks (-48kg), Acelya Toprak (-57kg), Stuart McWatt (-81kg), Frazer Chamberlain (-90kg) and Jamal Petgrave (-90kg) have been added to the team that will take to the mat in Tel Aviv.

Toprak, McWatt and Petgrave will all be making their European Championships debut in Israel later this month and are the youngest members of the team.

Following Lucy Renshall’s selection in February, this takes the number of debutants in the British team to four.

Toprak and Petgrave are both 2017 Junior European Championship medallists, winning silver and bronze respectively. They have also shown they can step up at senior level with Toprak winning the Belgrade European Open last year while Petgrave finished seventh in a strong field at the Tbilisi Grand Prix.

McWatt has put in a number of solid performances since returning from a second ACL/MCL knee surgery in September last year including fifth at the 2017 Junior World Championships and a seventh at the Dusseldorf Grand Slam earlier this year.

Renicks has performed consistently over the last year with fifth place finishes at the Cancun, Tunis and Tbilisi Grand Prix. The Glasgow 2014 gold medallist will be making her first appearance at a European Championships since 2013.

Chamberlain last fought at a European Championships in 2016 and the Camberley judoka has had some strong performances in 2018 including a fifth at the Tunis Grand Prix.

Rio 2016 bronze medallist Sally Conway (-70kg) and 2017 World Championships bronze medallists Nekoda Smythe-Davis (-57kg) and Natalie Powell (-78kg) were among the initial round of selections back in February.

Lucy Renshall (-63kg), Alice Schlesinger (-63kg), Gemma Howell (-70kg) and Ashley McKenzie (-60kg) were also part of the first round of selections.

Sarah Adlington (+78kg) was selected for the European Championships in the first round but has had to withdraw due to family commitments.

Nigel Donohue, British Judo Performance Director, said:

“For the first championships of 2018, we have selected a 12 strong and exciting team of experience and potential and optimistically, go into this event with high expectations.

“We have started the year building on the success in 2017 with some fantastic performances in a number of Grand Slam and Grand Prix’s with the highlights being Sally Conway wining Gold in Paris and likewise, Nekoda Davis winning Gold in Dusseldorf.

“The team that we have selected is a very strong mix of youth and experience. Our Senior athletes such as Nekoda, Sally, Natalie and Ashley have consistently performed at the very highest level and go into these championships in great form.

“Also, it is  very exciting to give some our young athletes the deserved exposure at a Senior Championships and although at this stage of their careers there is little expectations, I know that they will go into this event well prepared to give their very best performance. I am sure that they will do GB proud.

“Additionally, given the quality of our female programme, it is pleasing that we can also select strong reserve athletes at both -63kg and -70kg. It has been a long time since we have had such strength in depth in the GB programme

“Finally, we wish the team the very best at these championships and confident that they will put in some strong performances for GB.”

Media Opportunity

British Judo are offering an opportunity to film and interview members of the 2018 European Judo Championships team in Tel Aviv, Israel (26 – 28 April). Timings and details below

Date: 18/04/2018

Location: British Judo Centre of Excellence, University of Wolverhampton Walsall Campus, Gorway Road, Walsall, WS1 3BD

Timings:

1000 – 1100/1130         Athletes training – opportunities for filming or photography

1100/1130 – 1300         1:2:1 Interview/photo opportunities with spokespeople/athletes. Priority will be offered to broadcast/filmed interviews and print interviews conducted in person

Current athletes in attendance: Nekoda Smythe-Davis (-57kg), Acelya Toprak (-57kg), Lucy Renshall (-63kg), Sally Conway (-70kg), Gemma Howell (-70kg) and Natalie Powell (-78kg)

Stuart McWatt and Jamal Petgrave are training in Georgia as part of their preparation but phone/skype interviews can be setup for them

Separate interview opportunities can be setup with Kim Renicks, Alice Schlesinger, Ashley McKenzie and Frazer Chamberlain at their current training bases if requested

For all press enquiries please contact:

ABDULLAH MAHMOOD

PR OFFICER

abdullah.mahmood@britishjudo.org.uk

07989 591713