Gary Hall finishes fifth as Team Bath Judo Club quartet compete at African Open in Casablanca
Team Bath Judo Club had four fighters at the African Open in Casablanca, Morocco over the weekend.
Gary Hall produced the best result, placing fifth in the under-90kg category after losing out to Slovenia’s Mihael Zgank in the bronze-medal contest.
The 24-year-old from Bristol, coached by Juergen Klinger, had beaten Jordan’s Ibraheem Khalaf and Murat Gasiev of Russia in the preliminary rounds but was edged out by home judoka Imad Abdellaoui in the semi-finals.
Gregg Varey tweeted that he had “plenty to build on and positives to take away” from his seventh-placed finish in the under-66kg category.
After beating Spain’s Daniel Perez Roman in his opening contest, Varey lost to Portugal’s Andre Soares and Morocco’s Rachid Al Kadiri.
However, Varey – who will compete in his first-ever Grand Prix in Tbilisi, Georgia on Friday – finished on a high with victory over home judoka Imad Bassou in the repechage.
It was a tough weekend for Team Bath’s Emmanuel Nartey and Jan Gosiewski in the under-73kg competition.
After recording a 16-second Ippon against Senegal’s Samba Maiga, Gosiewski was beaten by Vincent Vallee of France in his second Pool B match.
Ghanaian international Nartey overcame Germany’s Tobias Schirra to reach the semi-finals in Pool D but lost out to Diego Sanchez Mondaca of Spain.
He was then beaten by France’s Benjamin Axus in the repechage and had to settle for seventh place overall.
