French Women Unstoppable at European Open Glasgow

The French team have won another four gold medals, making it eight titles at the European Open in Glasgow this weekend. The British machine that won two gold medals on Saturday continued rolling on Sunday. The Netherlands won two gold medals at the Emirates Arena.

The first gold medal of the day went to Austria. Shamil Borchashvili captured the U81kg title, defeating British medal hopeful Stuart McWatt in the final. No French managed to reach the podium, despite sending a representative to six out of the seven finals on Saturday. The U90kg category made up for U81kg with three French on the podium, Benoit Collin taking gold in the final against teammate Maxime Aminot, and Lorenzo Perricone joining Jamal Petgrave of Britain for bronze.

Joseph Terhec won another French gold medal in U100kg, emerging victorious against the talented Zalan Ohat of Hungary. Clement Delvert (FRA) and Rhys Thompson (GBR) took home bronze. Dutchman Jur Spijkers grabbed the gold medal in a small field of seven heavyweights, defeating Spaniard Irinel Chelaru in the final. 30-year old Adam Hall won bronze for Great Britain as the home team captured a medal in each of the male divisions today, a definite success.

Margaux Pinot of France is still among the best in her class in the U70kg category. Pinot won the final against 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Laura Vargas Koch of Germany. Miriam Butkereit (GER) and Alina Lengweiler (SUI) took bronze.

Dutchwoman Ilona Lucassen captured the first-place medal in U78kg as she overcame Briton Shelley Ludford in the final. The experienced Hungarian Anett Meszaros, back on the scene after some time away, surprised world number five Jemima Yeats-Brown in the quarterfinal, but the Briton came back in the repechage and won her two next contests to capture bronze. Sama Hawa Camara of France won the other bronze. Rauhiti Vernaudon emerged victorious amongst a heavyweight class of six women. The Frenchwoman defeated Emese Karpati (HUN) in the final. Sara Alvarez (ESP) and 17-year old Emily Ritchie became the youngest medallists of the weekend, taking bronze.

In total, the French collected 22 medals, almost 40% of all medals and more than 50% of the total gold pot. The British team went home satisfied with nine total medals, two of which were gold medals won on Saturday.