British Judo enjoyed their best European medal haul in 20 years as Natalie Powell took bronze in the -78kg on the final day in Tel Aviv.
Her medal was GB’s fifth of these European Championships, which saw Sally Conway, Gemma Howell and Lucy Renshaw all reach the podium yesterday, with Ashley McKenzie winning bronze on Thursday.
Powell secured her third consecutive European bronze after entering the competition as top seed, taking on the Hungarian Evelin Salanki in the first round, which was won as the British judoka countered two of her opponent’s throws for waza-ari.
Next up in the quarter-finals was eighth seed Anna Maria Wagner, of Germany, who went ahead after rolling Powell in the first minute.
Powell counter-attacked, restoring parity by throwing Wagner for waza-ari before ending the contest with a minute to spare by going into osaekomi.
She met Madeleine Malonga of France in the semi-finals, where her dreams of an elusive title were shattered.
Malonga was dominant from the off, throwing Powell for waza-ari before entering straight into osaekomi to triumph.
All was not lost for Powell, however, and her determination for some silverware was evident as she faced Portugal’s Yahima Ramirez in the bronze medal match.
She ensured she dominated the gripping exchanges and finally forced Ramirez into three shidos to secure her bronze medal.
"I’m really happy to get a meal, obviously, but I came here to do a bit better," she said.
"Having got a couple of bronze medals before I would’ve liked to have won that semi-final but I didn’t feel like I really got into it.
"I got thrown pretty early on, which was disappointing.
"But I felt good throughout the day and on the whole I’m really happy.
"I knew that I was the number one seed going in but I probably wasn’t the favourite – I knew probably Malonga would be the favourite.
"But I still felt like I would get to the final. I didn’t but I’m still pleased to come back from the loss and get the bronze."
Elsewhere, Brits Frazer Chamberlain and Jamal Petgrave suffered early defeats in the -90kg class, with both exiting in the second round.
Estonia’s Klen Kristofer Kaljulaid used an erratic style to force a passivity shido against Chamberlain, who enjoyed a brief spell of dominance, forcing two shidos, before ultimately relenting as Kaljulaid threw Chamberlain for waza-ari in golden score.
And Petgrave, who was making his senior European debut, was beaten with a minute left by Georgian judoka Beka Gviniashvili.
Petgrave attempted to bounce back from an early slump as the Georgian took the waza-ari lead, but his attack was foiled as Gviniashvili’s power triumphed and he took Petgrave back from ippon.
Sportsbeat 2018