28th January 2008

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28th January 2008

Gold for Millar in Georgia - Report from a British perspective

The final phase of Olympic qualifiers kicked off over the weekend. The men were in Georgia for the Tbilisi World Cup, a particularly tough first event as the Eastern Europeans traditionally dominate. The calibre of the event was particularly high, and with 4000 plus spectators achieved an atmosphere usually expected at the Paris Super World Cup.

James Millar (left with his recent British Closed gold medal), who was the only competitor at –60kg, with Craig Fallon out due to a small injury sustained in Mittersal, clinched a spectacular gold.

Millar had a fantastic run winning all his fights by ippon, and then although down by a waza-ari in the final came back in the last minute to hold down Pavel Petrikov of the Czech Republic for ippon.

–60kg is now Great Britain’s strongest weight category in the European rankings with two players now sitting in the Olympic qualification zone.

Colin Oates (right with his British Closed gold medal) at –66kg gave a good performance beating David Asumbani of Georgia, but then lost to Sebastien Berthelot of France, and then Hambardzum Armtonovan of Armenia in the repechage.

Matt Purssey (left countering Tom Reed at the British Closed), in the –73kg weight category, won his first fight against Kokha Mamulashvili of Georgia, then beat old rival Victor Bivol of Georgia in golden score. But despite being in control of the quarter final narrowly lost against Marco Maddaloni of Italy.

In the same weight category Iain Feenan (right with his recent British Closed gold medal) lost his first fight against Yoel Razvozov of Israel, then again to World medallist Daniel Fernandes of France in the repechage .

In the –90kg weight category, Winston Gordon narrowly lost in golden score to Victor Fishman of Israel. Unfortunately the Israeli then withdraw due to injury ending Gordon’s chances of fighting through the repechage.

The final of the –90kg was an electric affair with current World Champion Irakli Tsirekidze facing current Olympic Champion Zurab Zviadauri, both of Georgia. Zviadauri eventually took the gold in golden score but the contest was obviously a crowd pleaser and one of the highlights of the weekend for the home crowd.

The women travelled to the Sofia World Cup in Bulgaria with some familiar names missing notably Faith Pitman who withdrew due to injury, and Georgina Singleton and Karina Bryant both out due to illness.

Sophie Johnstone gave a good performance at –52kg against the top five ranked Zardgoza Carrascosa of Spain, but was eventually defeated. She then came up against Anush Hakobyan of Armenia in the repechage, but her strong static style of fighting conflicted with the Brits who eventually lost by two waza-ari scores.

Sally Conway (left at the recent British Closed championships where she won gold) , at –70kg, won her first fight against Snzana Delibasic of Serbia, but lost her second to Olympic silver medallist Edith Bosch by two yukos and a koka – a huge improvement on the last time they met. Conway then lost to Kerstin Thiele of Germany, a repeat of the last time they met at the under-23 European Championships.