Day two of the 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival saw Team GB get off the mark in style securing a medal of each colour with judoka Amy Platten winning the team’s first gold of the week in -44kg event.
Judo got underway on day two with a tough draw for Team GB’s judoka in the -40kg and -44kg in the girls’ event and -50kg and -55kg in the boys’ event, but it was undoubtedly 16-year-old Amy Platten from St. Albans who stole the show with a gold medal in the -44kg final against Tamea Kardos, executing a perfect throw to secure her golden score victory by ippon.
Platten, the world ranked number three, looked in fine form en route to the final against her Hungarian opponent, but once there, nothing, including a partisan home crowd, was going to stop her taking the gold medal.
“I’m buzzing. I’m absolutely over the moon,” said Platten. “I had a lot of nerves at the start of the day which is strange as I don’t usually but this is a big event and with the Hungarian seeded first I knew it was going to be a big crowd with a lot of pressure, but I just focused and took one fight at a time.
“It was amazing to play in front of the home crowd and I just absorbed the energy and put it into the fight. Every time I heard a cheer I was getting something from it too.
“I received amazing support from my team, I could hear it throughout the day and they were giving as good as they got against the Hungarians.”
In the boys’ competition both Dan Rabbit (-55kg) and Charlie Young (-50kg) put in strong showings against an experienced field, both narrowly missing out in their bronze medal matches after coming through the repechages.
Across the main thoroughfare in the Olympic Park the boys’ artistic gymnastics got underway with Team GB fielding a strong team in the shape of Jamie Lewis, Jake Jarman and Pavel Karnejenko. The trio came into the competition much fancied, but would face strong opposition in the form of some familiar countries, most notably the Russians.
All three athletes had strong showings across the six pieces of apparatus, leading after two sessions, with the Russian team competing in the final session. In the end the Russian triumvirate of Iurii Busse, Sergei Naidin, Aleksandr Kartsev were victorious (161.450) with Team GB taking silver (159.000) and Jamie Lewis and Jake Jarman securing progress to individual and all round finals on Thursday.
Speaking moments after being presented with their silver medals, team captain Jamie Lewis was proud yet determined about what still lay ahead. “It feels good to win silver. All the preparation and hard work has paid off which is amazing. We were coming to gold but I’m really proud as to help the three of us win a medal today.
“I’ve now got a number of finals to come later in the week and will be trying my best to win more medals for myself and the team – really looking forward to it.”
Earlier in the day, the Festival footprint opened up as the girls’ and boys’ time trials took athletes on a tour of Győr. First up was the girls’ event and Team GB had a member of its squad with strong cycling heritage in the form of Elynor Backstedt whose father Magnus won stages in the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, but it was his daughter who put in a herculean effort to claim bronze, and Team GB’s first medal of the week, with teammates Ella Barnwell and Amelia Sharp finishing ninth and 16th respectively on the 10km course. But the day belonged to Backstedt who only returned the bike two months ago following a crash which kept her on the sidelines for eight weeks.
“I’m really happy with today. It’s been a tough year after the crash but I so wanted to get back racing and get selected for this. I’ve been trying to work on fitness and speed over the past six weeks. I targeted this event before the week started and would have been happy with a top ten so to get a medal makes me so happy and it’s amazing to win Team GB’s first medal.”
Elsewhere, Team GB’s tennis players put the weather disruptions of yesterday behind them with some strong showings in the doubles, with Lilly Mould and Holly Staff defeating Georgia 6-1, 6-1 whilst the boys had a slightly sterner test against their Moldovan opponents, eventually running out 7-5, 7-5 winners, a pleasing day’s work for Toby Samuel who won his singles match earlier in the day 6-0, 6-0.
“It was a tough match in the doubles and we felt pretty nervous at the beginning with the wind swirling,” said Samuel. “But we knuckled down and got our energy back and were soon playing a lot better. The second round is against the number one seeds so won’t be easy but we know we can play well and if we win that the draw really opens up.”
From rackets to paddles and Team GB’s canoe sprint team were in action for the first time and it was a busy day with Alex Greaves and Ed Nightingale making the K2 500m semi-final tomorrow, Alix Aitchison and Thomas Lambert securing a spot in the C2 500m semi-final, with Greaves and Nightingale joining Zoe Clark and Enya Dale to ensure another semi-final showing tomorrow in the K4 500m. Clark and Dale were desperately unlucky to miss out on a semi-final of their own as they were squeezed out in their heat by 0.3 of a second.
Finally, the action continued in the Aqua Sports Center as Team GB were in five finals. Charlie Hutchison, Kyle Booth and Pia Murray were in action in their finals after successful semi-finals yesterday. Hutchsion placed seventh in the 100m backstroke, Booth seventh in 100m breaststroke and Murray seventh 100m backstroke final. Bromsgrove youngster Sam Osbourne came eighth in 400m freestyle, a tough showing but one he was pleased with all the same following personal best in the morning’s preliminaries.
“I was really happy to make the final after a decent PB this morning,” said Osborne. “I tried going out harder in the final but it hit me in the back end.
“The swimming is really good here compared to back in the UK so just making the final is an achievement. I’m really enjoying experience here, it’s new and the teams are mixing which is great for team spirit.”
Artistic Gymnastics
Men’s Team Event: Jamie Lewis, Jake Jarman, Pavel Karnejenko 2nd (159.000)
Canoe Sprint
Men’s K1 500m Qualification: Alex Greaves 2nd (1:52.64)
Women’s K1 500m Qualification: Zoe Clark 1st (2:11.50)
Men’s C1 500m Qualification: Thomas Lambert 3d (2:24.01)
Women’s C1 500m Qualification: Alix Aitchison (2:49.72)
Men’s K2 500m Qualfication: Alex Greaves, Ed Nightingale 2nd (1:42.86)
Women’s K2 500m Qualification: Enya Dale, Zoe Clark 1st (2:01.27)
Men’s K1 500m Heat: Alex Greaves 2nd (1:53.61)
Women’s K1 500m Heat: Zoe Clark 3rd (2:08.46)
Men’s K2 500m Heat: Alex Greaves, Ed Nightingale 2nd (1:41.503)
Women’s K2 500m Heat: Enya Dale, Zoe Clark 3rd (1:55.90)
Mixed C2 500m Heat: Alix Aitchison, Thomas Lambert 3rd (2:21.55)
Mixed K4 500m Heat: Alex Greaves, Ed Nightingale, Enya Dale, Zoe Clark 2nd (1:39.60)
Cycling
Women’s Time Trial: Elynor Backstedt 3rd (15:23.72), Ella Barnwell 9th (15:40.08), Amelia Sharpe 16th (16:01.20)
Men’s Time Trial: Sam Watson 7th (13:28.42), Lewis Askey 8th (13:29.26), Alfie George (14:08.58)
Judo
Women’s -44kg Amy Platten 1st
Men’s -50kg: Charlie Young 5th
Men’s -55kg: Dan Rabbit 5th
Swimming
Women’s 800m Freestyle Slow Heat: Michaella Glenister 7th (09:01.30), Rachel Anderson 16th (09:18.07)
Men’s 400m Freestyle Preliminaries: Samuel Osborne 6th (4:01.25), Archie Goodburn 19th (4:08.72)
Women’s 100m Freestyle Preliminaries: Mia Slevin 21st (58.45), Alicia Dingle 30th (59.19)
Men’s 50m Freestyle Preliminaries: Sam Dailley 25th (24.54), Adam Metcalf 34th (24.75)
Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay Preliminaries: Great Britain 8th (4:05.06)
Men’s 400m Freestyle Final: Samuel Osborne 8th (4:02.09)
Men’s 100m Backstroke Final: Charlie Hutchison 7th (58.21)
Men’s 100m Breaststroke Final: Kyle Booth 7th (1:04.81)
Women’s 100m Backstroke Final: Pia Murray 7th (1:04.19)
Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay Final: Great Britain 7th (4:04.09)
Tennis
Men’s Singles: Toby Samuel bt Brynjar Engilbertsson (Iceland) 6-0 6-0
Women’s Singles: Lilly Mould bt Evelina Martirosyan (Armenia) 6-2 6-1
Men’s Doubles: Toby Samuel & Barney Fitzpatrick bt Bogdan Boclinca & Illia Snitari (Moldova) 7-5 7-5
Women’s Doubles: Lilly Mould & Holly Staff bt Tamari Gagoshidze & Dalida Kadaria (Georgia) 6-1 6-1
All times are Győr time (BST+1)
Artistic Gymnastics: Women’s Qualification & Team Event 10:00-19:00 (Taeja James, Amelie Morgan, Zoe Simmons)
Canoe Sprint: Men’s, Women’s & Mixed 500m Semi-Finals 09:00-13:00, Men’s, Women’s & Mixed 500m Finals 15:00-18:00 (Alix Aitchison, Zoe Clark, Enya Dale, Alex Greaves, Thomas Lambert, Ed Nightingale)
Judo: Women’s -48 (Imogen Walls), -52 (Jasmine Hacker-Jones), Men’s -60 (Oliver Park), -66 (Archie Platt) Eliminations & Repechage 10:00-14:45, Finals 16:00-18:00
Swimming: Heats 09:00-10:30, Finals 17:00-20:00 (Adam Metcalf, Alicia Dingle, Archie Goodburn, Ceara Barber, Charlie Hutchison, Charlotte Robinson, Kyle Booth, Mia Slevin, Michaella Glenister, Oliver Taverner, Pia Murray, Rachel Anderson, Rebecca Clynes, Sam Dailley, Samuel Osborne, William Bell)
Tennis: Men’s & Women’s Singles First Round 09:00-20:00 (Toby Samuel, Lilly Mould), Men’s and Women’s Doubles First round 09:00-20:00 (Toby Samuel, Barney Fitzpatrick, Lilly Mould, Holly Staff)