Junior European Championships Preview

The 2014 Junior European Individual Championships are set to take place between 19 and 20 September 2014 in Bucharest, Romania, writes Donna Richardson.

Several Centre of Excellence athletes are looking forward to the event. Sam Hall (-60kg) said: “I am in my second year as a junior and my focus is to get a medal at Junior European and Junior Worlds this year.”

Eric Ham (-66kg) added: “I am really excited about the Junior Europeans. It will be a tough competition for me as I am still a cadet and the other competitors are three or four years older than me. It will be a good experience.”

Ebony Drysdale-Daley, (-70kg), told British Judo: “I’m hoping to come away with a medal if I train hard and it’s all good preparation for Tokyo 2020.”

The team also includes George Smith (-90kg), Bekky Livesey (-57kg), Jemima Yeats-Brown and Lucy Renshall (both -63kg) and Jodie Myers (+78kg), Jemima Duxberry (Devizes and Team Bath), Neil MacDonald (-60kg) of Alba, Scotland.

In addition, the following players have been selected to represent Great Britain in the 2014 Junior European Team Championships: Jade Lewis WJA Academy (-52kg), Bekky Livesey (-57kg), Jemima Yeats-Brown, Lucy Renshall (-63kg), Ebony Drysdale-Daley, Jemima Duxberry (-70kg) and Jodie Myers (+78kg).

Jemima Duxberry said: “I am really excited, training has gone really well and it’s my last year of juniors so I’m really looking to get onto the podium. We’ve got a really strong team this year so I think it will be a great Europeans for us all.”

Coach Jamie Johnson, who has been preparing the players over a ten week period, including priming them against their potential opponents using video analysis, said:

“Our players are all capable of getting medals in European Cups and we are helping them to step up to the next level.”

The Low Down

Friday: Women-44kg, -48kg and -57kg. Men -55kg, -60kg, -66kg and -73kg

Saturday: Women -63kg, -70kg, -78kg and +78kg. Men -81kg, -90kg, -100kg and +100kg

Sunday: Women and Men’s team event. Follow the action live on ippon.org and ippon.tv