Strong Finish for Team GB Judoka as John Jayne Jnr Claims European Youth Olympic Festival Bronze

Team GB’s judoka ended the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) on a high with John Jayne Jnr claiming a bronze medal on the final day of the tournament.

Jayne, ranked 3rd in Europe at cadet level, dominated his bronze medal contest against Portuguese athlete Pedro Silva scoring two waza-ari and three yukos to win Team GB’s second bronze medal in the judo event.

He started his march to the bronze with a victory over Giorgi Gvelesiani of Georgia, winning by waza-ari, before taking a narrow win by a yuko of Italy’s Davide Pozzi.

The semi-final ended Jayne’s hopes of gold by the narrowest of margins, losing out to Martti Puumalainen of Finland on shidos, however he regained his composure and took a resounding victory over Silva to win the bronze medal.

Also in action today was Michelle Boyle in the +70kg category. She scored two waza-ari to beat Emese Karpati of Hungary in the opening round before losing out narrowly on shidos to European 5th ranked Kamila Pasternak of Poland. Dropping into the repechage Boyle faced Bularia’s Teodora Eneva, losing by a single yuko to place seventh.

Valentino Volante faced Turk Kadir Bingol in the +90kg category but after going a yuko down, he lost out by ippon late in the contest.