Karina Bryant wins European Championship bronze medal

Karina Bryant won her eighth European medal as she took bronze in emphatic fashion on the final day of the individual competition in Chelyabinsk.

Four-time European champion and three-time Olympian Karina Bryant edged past France’s 2007 European bronze medallist Ketty Mathe and reached the semi-final with a win by yuko over Carola Uilenhoed of the Netherlands.

In the semi-final contest three-time European champion Elena Ivashchenko picked up a yuko and sealed a place in the final by ippon which saw Bryant enter the repechage to fight for bronze against Bosnia-Herzegovina’s former junior world champion Larisa Ceric.

Bryant was the aggressor and went a yuko up and continued to press for further openings. The long-time standout sealed a place on the medal rostrum by ippon.

After stepping off the tatami Karina said: “I am pleased with my performance, it gave me a great opportunity to see how my preparation has been going and where I am at this stage of my plan up to London.”

In the -90kg category two-time Olympian Winston Gordon had a bye in the first round before meeting Poland’s former u23 European champion Krzysztof Weglarz. Gordon took the win via ippon with two minutes left in the contest.

In the pool semi-final Gordon bowed out at the hands of Georgia’s 2011 European bronze medallist Varlam Liparteliani – the eventual gold medallist – by ippon.

In the same category Matthew Purssey lost by way of ippon to Austrian national champion Max Schirnhofer.

The -100kg field saw James Austin topple Frenchman Cyril Maret before tasting defeat against German Dino Pfeiffer by ippon.

In the +100kg category Chris Sherrington went out to France’s Matthieu Bataille by ippon having registered a waza-ari of his own.

The +78kg category also saw Sarah Adlington exit the competition against Ukraine’s Iryna Kindzerska by ippon.

The European Championships conclude with the team event on Sunday where Britain will be represented.

You can watch the action live from 7am GMT on www.eju.net