Continental championships offer Team Bath judoka big chance to close in on Rio 2016
Team Bath judoka Ben Fletcher and Emmanuel Nartey can strengthen their claims for Rio 2016 Olympic Games selection when they compete in continental championships this month.
Fletcher has been named in a 13-strong Great Britain team for this month’s European Judo Championships in Russia.
It is the last major tournament before this summer’s Olympics, giving Fletcher – coached by Juergen Klinger at the Sports Training Village – a big chance to collect more priceless qualification points before the May 30 deadline.
He is currently in a qualifying position in the -100kg rankings and will be keen to strengthen his grip on that place with a strong performance when the Europeans take place in Kazan from April 21-24.
Joining Fletcher in the British squad is University of Bath Sports Performance graduate Gemma Gibbons, who won -78kg silver at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Nigel Donohue, British Judo Performance Director, said: “We go to these European Championships with high expectations. The team on the whole across the IJF World Tour have performed well and won a number of Grand Prix and Grand Slam medals, defeating some of the best players in the World.
“This gives us great confidence in knowing that we have the players who can compete against the best in the World and we see these European Championships as an extremely important opportunity to perform maximally in a major championships as we count down to the Rio Olympic Games.”
London 2012 Olympian Nartey, meanwhile, will compete in the African Championships in Tunisia this weekend.
The Ghanaian, who has trained at Team Bath for the past ten years, needs just a few more points to secure an Olympic continental quota place in the -73kg weight category.
