Six of the most talented young judoka in the South West last week spent time with Team Bath's high performance judo squad as part of the Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) programme. The year-long programme, run in conjunction with the British Judo Association (BJA), is designed to provide young athletes aged 16-18 with the opportunity to experience the lifestyle of performance athletes. At the same time they are helped towards earning UCAS-recognised sports qualifications which equate to two...
Judoka who train at Team Bath won three golds and eight medals in total during an impressive weekend at the British Judo Championships in Sheffield. University of Bath Sport Performance student Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz (pictured second from left), who is supported by a King Scholarship, set the tone on Saturday as she was crowned as national junior champion in the -63kg weight division. The following day’s Senior Championships saw Gary Hall, a bronze-medallist at the Glasgow 2014...
Team Bath Judo Club’s Megan Fletcher collected more valuable Rio 2016 Olympic Games qualification points as she finished seventh at the Qingdao Grand Prix in China. After her gold-medal success in Australia the previous week, Fletcher got off to a confident start in the U70kg weight division as she beat Georgia’s Esther Stam by yuko. However, a single penalty against Fletcher proved decisive in a tight quarter-final as she was edged out by South Korea’s...
Megan Fletcher struck gold and there was a bronze medal for Jan Gosiewski as Team Bath judoka enjoyed success at the Oceania Open in Woolongong, Australia. Commonwealth champion Fletcher won all of her fights by ippon to claim the women’s under-70kg title and 100 valuable ranking points on the road to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. After defeating home favourite Naomi De Bruine in the preliminary round, Fletcher beat Lynn Mossong of Luxembourg in the...
Team Bath Judo Club’s Ben Fletcher gained more valuable qualification points on the road to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as he struck gold at the African Open Championships in Mauritius. The 23-year-old, coached by Juergen Klinger at the University of Bath, dominated all of his fights in the under-100kg weight division to claim the third international title of his career and his second in 2015, following his success in Tunis in January. After overcoming...
There were two silvers and a bronze medal for Team Bath’s elite judoka to celebrate when the European Open took place in Scotland and Portugal at the weekend. Tom Reed reached the under-81kg final at the men’s event in Glasgow, while Ben Fletcher strengthened his grip on a Rio 2016 Olympic Games qualification place with bronze in the under-100kg division. And over at the women’s event in Lisbon, Megan Fletcher won a silver medal in...
It is exactly 300 days until the Rio 2016 Olympic Games get under way – and Team Bath’s elite judoka face a crucial competition as they bid to reach Brazil. Valuable qualification points for the Games are up for grabs at the European Judo Open, which takes place this weekend in Glasgow for men and Lisbon for women. Among those heading to Scotland is Ben Fletcher, pictured, who currently meets the qualification criteria for Rio...
Athletes, students, coaches and graduates at the University of Bath are excitedly counting down to Rio 2016, with just one year to go until the Olympic Games get under way. Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European medallists are among the many athletes from a wide range of sports aspiring to be Brazil-bound in 12 months’ time. Bringing home just how close the Games are is the fact that the University of Bath is staging a Rio...
There was an all Team Bath final at the 2015 British Judo Open, which took place in the SSE Arena, Wembley over the weekend. Gemma Howell and Megan Fletcher usually fight in different weight categories but both were entered in the -70kg competition this time. And both progressed to the final, where they produced – in the words of coach Juergen Klinger – “a fantastic fight, very open and very fast”. It went all the...
Team Bath Judo Club coach Juergen Klinger rued the “tactical mistakes” which contributed to early exits for Megan Fletcher, Ben Fletcher and Gemma Howell at the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan. All three were in good positions in the fights they lost but went on to endure frustrating defeats. Commonwealth champion Megan Fletcher was up against Poland's Katarzyna Klys in their -70kg round-of-32 contest but lost out following a pair of yukos. “Megan got thrown...
