Team Bath judoka Ben Fletcher moves into world’s top ten after winning Grand Slam silver in Germany
Team Bath judoka Ben Fletcher has hailed his silver medal at the Dusseldorf Grand Slam in Germany as “probably the best result of my career”.
The Rio 2016 Olympian and MJ Church ambassador was only denied the -100kg gold by Georgia’s Varlam Liparteliani, an Olympic and World silver-medallist who is currently ranked number one in the world.
Fletcher had to battle through four rounds to reach the final, recording impressive victories over Temur Rakhimov of Tajikistan, Israel’s Peter Paltchik, Anton Savitskiy of Ukraine and, in the semi-final, Russia’s Niiaz Bilalov.
It was Fletcher’s third medal in as many months, following on from his golds in the Hong Kong Asian Open and Tunis Grand Prix, and moves him up to a career-high ninth in the world rankings.
“I still think there is plenty in the tank and I’m very excited to see where I can get to,” said Fletcher, who is coached by Juergen Klinger in the University of Bath Sports Training Village dojo.
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Picture: International Judo Federation
