British Lubjana Piovesana shines among Japanese women's gold

The Japanese Junior women gave a good show at the European Cup in Wroclaw last weekend. The Japanese won six out of eight categories. British Lulu Piovesana took a second gold medal in successive weekends in Wroclaw. The other gold was for Germany’s Jana Schmitz on Saturday. Piovesana has had a strong year so far, taking her fourth Junior European Cup gold this weekend, and the second in the space of two weeks. Piovesana had to overcome Kaho Yonezawa of Japan in the final of the U63kg category, doing so with a yuko score to take the gold medal.

In the men’s category Great Britain, host nation Poland, Germany and Ukraine added medals to Saturdays results where the Ukraine and Belgium won two gold medals overall.

British talent Stuart McWatt celebrated his birthday with a gold in the U81kg category. Facing a strong field in the U81kg category, McWatt stormed through his five contests with four wins ippon wins. A win in the final against Joao Martinho of Portgual made it a double celebration for McWatt, who was also celebrating his eighteenth birthday.

Stuart McWatt said: "Going into the competition it looked tough, and I was fighting on my birthday so I didn't want to lose first round. I felt good on the day, everything was on point and I beat one of my rivals in the semi finals. It felt good to win especially after only getting bronze last week at the British Open."

Piotr Kuczera won the men’s category U90kg when he overcame Eduard Trippel of Germany in the final. It was the only Polish victory this weekend, but last year the organizer had no gold medal at all. The Polish added five bronze medals to a total of six, a clear improvement to last year and comparable to 2013.

The gold medal U100kg was for Domenik Schoenefeldt of Germany who defeated John Jayne, now fighting for the USA, previously for Great Britain and Bulgaria. Schoenefeldt won his third European Cup medal this year, he also won the gold in Coimbra and Kaunas.

Sergii Zveriev won bronze last year in Wroclaw but now won his first European Cup. The Ukrainian is the bronze medallist at the European Championships in 2014 and EYOF winner in 2011. He was second of the world in Cadets in 2011 and now seems to develop well in the juniors. He defeated his compatriot Nodar Machutadze who improved last year’s seventh place into silver this time.