Treble success for home judokas at British Open

GREAT Britain claimed nine medals at the British Open Championships in Crawley to finish third on the medal table behind France and the Netherlands.

Sarah Adlington, Ashley McKenzie and Gemma Howell all struck gold while Nathon Burns (-60kg) won silver and Colin Oates (-66kg), James Millar (-60kg), Sally Conway (-70kg), Chris Sherrington (+100kg) and Siobhan O'Neill (-52kg) all claimed bronzes.

Adlington admitted the competition wasn't as high as she expected as she beat Dutch judoka Gerdien Kupers to win gold.

"This was still a good win for me, as I had to miss this event last year due to injury," she said. 

"The main thing was competing and getting some fights in. The medal was a bonus."

In the -60kg class, teenager McKenzie - whose raw talent and disciplinary problems have been highlighted in the BBC's ongoing Olympic Dreams series - underlined his undoubted potential with wins over Portugal's Miguel Castro, Dutch fighter Marciano Lantinga and Spain's Javie Selma, all by a decisive ippon scores before two juko points earned him a final win over British team-mate Burns.

After ten months out by injury, Howell was delighted with her return to competition in her new -63kg weigh category, beating team-mate Faith Pitman before easing past Jennifer Wichers, of the Netherlands in the final.