GB Judo round off European Open in style

Shelley Ludford and Stuart McWatt both claimed silvers whilst there were five British bronze medallists, adding to the double gold that GB won through Josie Wilson and Alexander Short on Saturday.

But for 19-year-old Ludford - fighting in her first European Open event - it was just another day at the office.

"I'm really happy with my performance today, especially my semi fight, beating the Hungarian, I was really happy with that," she said.

"I won a lot in newaza today but it just shows that my technical sessions are working.

"I didn't expect to get into the final. I know it's bad, but I literally didn't have any nerves the night before. I just wanted to go out there, perform my best and I did."

Ludford had beaten Spain's Laia Talarn and Anett Meszaros of Hungary to set up her final with Dutch judoka Ilona Lucassen in the -78kg, where a single waza-ari score was enough to seal victory for her opponent.

Her compatriot McWatt had to battle to reach his final in the -81kg and needed a golden point to defeat former European Championships medallist Szabolcs Krizsan of Hungary in his semi-final, before falling to the Austrian Shamil Borchashvili in the final.

The 21-year-old largely controlled the fight, but a mistake in the golden point allowed his opponent to record an ippon throw, and he was disappointed to have been defeated.

"Getting to the final, having a chance to fight for gold and then you almost you lose to get silver, it was hard," he said.

"Especially because I thought I fought a pretty good fight in the final and it was a small mistake.

"But to come here, back to Glasgow, get a medal at a Continental Open, really proud of myself today for performing quite well."

Elsewhere there were bronze medals for Jemima Yeats-Brown, Jamal Petgrave, Rhys Thompson, Adam Hall and 17-year-old Emily Ritchie.

Sportsbeat 2018