At the second day of the GB World Cup in Birmingham, the hone country has won the medal table. Great Britain won four gold medals, two of them today.
Euan Burton (GBR) beat his compatriot Tom Reed in the U81kg final.
Burton admitted it had been strange fighting a fellow Briton, and had not made for the greatest spectacle.
“It was always going to be a bit cagey when you are fighting against another British player, because we know each other so well,” he said.
“Tom has been in fantastic form and there is also a lot at stake, because it is the pride of your country – you always want to stay number one.”
The experienced Flavio Canto (BRA) finished fifth losing to Murat Khabachirov (RUS) who won the bronze together with Dennis Huck (GER). But another Brazilian, Hugo Pessanha did beat another Russian; Samir Guchapshev in the U90kg final.
Another gold medal for Great Britain when Sarah Adlington defeated Lucia Tangorre (ITA) in the +78kg category by an oseikomi halfway the match.
Adlington commented: “I am pretty happy with that. I am pleased with the performance throughout the day. There weren’t so many heavyweights here this year but it was good to fight some different athletes today. My goal is to keep improving as we head towards the London Olympics.”
In the U78kg category Italy won the title on behalf of Assunte Galeone who mastered Canada’s Catherine Roberge. British Sian Wilson took the bronze as well as Amy Cotton (CAN) who had a walkover for a bronze medal as Sam Lowe was disqualified from her semi-final for an attempted illegal throw.
France led yesterday winning two titles, today Mylene Chollet added the third U70kg. Chollet defeated Marilise Levesque from Canada in the final, but had beaten a good quality serie of opponents: Linda Bolder (NED), Kelita Zupancic (CAN), Iljana Marzok (GER) and Levesque in the final. Marzok and Zupancic both won the bronze.
Zafar Makharov (RUS) won the gold U100kg beating Dino Pfeifer (GER) in the final. Frederic Stiegelmann took the bronze together with Danny Meeuwsen (NED).
Another Russian title when Dmitry Sterkhov took the gold in the +100kg division. He beat Thomas Sinsou from France in the final. Sergey prokin added the 7th Russian medal this weekend by winning bronze. So did Luuk Verbij who won the 4th medal for The Netherlands.
All in all an excellent weekend for British Judo with four titles, and 9 medals in total. France even topped the number of medals winning 13 in total finishing second in the medal table. Russia ended third, winning three gold medals, all in the men’s category.